Power at last – Electricity from human waste.
It is always disgusting, no one ever wants to talk about it, and in case of poor disposal no one is courageous enough to claim ownership, but for Vincent Owino Odero, it is a different story. Human waste, specifically stool is such a precious raw material he much need for his renewable energy project to bear fruit.
At the age of 20, Vincent Odero, a second year student at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, taking Bachelor of Science in Information and Communication Technology, decided to actualize his dream of illuminating his home by making electricity through human waste. Vincent has managed to install locally assembled transformer in the family compound and by tapping and converting human waste energy from their pit latrine to electricity, he is able power their home and other six homesteads in the neighborhood.
Vincent says that he used to hear people say human waste has got some form of energy and the first time he confirmed this was when their sheep fell in an old pit latrine and got burnt. From there he got the determination to find out how he can convert that heat energy to electric energy. He came up with a device he is calling a “thermocouple” that helps him convert heat from human waste into electricity and another one that converts hydrogen in the human urine into electric power. Both gadgets combine to produce electricity of 12voltage Direct Current which is converted to 240 Volts of Alternating Current which is further boosted to high voltage to take care of the power lose during transmission.
Vincent is grateful for the knowledge he got while in form three in his physics classes which ignited the idea of making electricity. He says that coming to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University has now made it so easy for him to advance his thoughts and put them in practice until now he can see the product.
The last born in a family of four is committed to register his project with the government and thereafter upscale it to a bigger innovation that would require oil-cooled transformer that can handle higher power voltages to serve a larger area. Other challenges that he is looking forward to address include rain water entering the latrines and dilutes the mixtures hence low power production, and using recommended materials that are approved by the government.
Vincent’s Innovation is an eye opener to many students in the campus beyond who have been challenged to be creative enough to use locally available materials in solving human problems and satisfying the needs of many in the society.
