Microwave driven plasma gasifier-solid oxide fuel cell system for human waste processing

A community based sanitation system that processes human waste at an omnigasification plant is presented. The concept aims to destroy pathogens and generate energy from waste. The waste is dried, converted to syngas in a microwave assisted plasma gasifier and the gas produced is fed into a solid oxide fuel cell to produce electric power. In addition, a front-end for the process has also been developed with the design of a water diverting toilet and a community sanitation centre as well as the recognition of women empowerment, branding and sustainable business modeling. Plasma gasification has been demonstrated to be feasible at the small scale required for the application and the concept of energy recovery has been proven by integrating a gasifier, a gas cleaning unit, and SOFC test station. With thermodynamic calculations, it is shown that such a plant can be energy self-sufficient.