Household Turbine Powered By Your Toilet's Wastewater



Tom Broadbent, a student at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, built a machine that harvests the kinetic energy of water that is flushed down a toilet. It's called HighDro Power and can save about £926 in a seven-storey building:

He added: “HighDro Power works by using the water discharged from appliances such as showers, toilets and sinks in high-rise apartments. The water goes down the pipe and hits four turbine blades that drive one generator.

“The whole thing was influenced by traditional waterwheels to ensure that any solids passing through had limited effects on whether they could function.”


Link via Popular Science | Photo: Creative Boom

There's probably a way that it filters out the solids.

Overall, I applaud this type of thinking. This kind of reverse engineering is the best way to solve long term problems and a novel idea.
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easy solution to all of that:

really really sharp blades

or even better: cutting lasers (I know they would waste much more energy then it brings but it solves the problem)
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and for those who where tinking about the inlet water: that has to be pumped up, costing energy. The high freefall from a few stories up is where this gets it energy. (the energy gatherd during freefall would otherwise be wasted at the first bend.
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