Turning Used Diapers Into Energy
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A machine devised by Japanese firm Super Faiths converts used diapers into pellets that can be burned for energy. (Super Faiths)
Need a clean source of power? Why not turn to disposable diapers?
Citing not just the abundance of infants but also an increasingly aging society, a Japanese company has developed a technique for transforming used disposable diapers into energy.
The SFD system by oddly named Japanese company Super Faiths moves used diapers (and their contents) through a three-stage process, first pulverizing them before desiccating and sterilizing them, to ultimately create energy pellets that can be burned in special boilers and stoves.
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Super Faiths claims that the final, odorless product becomes less than 1/3 the weight and bulk of the original diapers and contains 5,000 kilocalories of heat per kilogram.
CNET's Crave blog points out that Super Faiths has installed two SFD machines a hospital in western Tokyo's Machida area. The machines take in a combined 1,400 pounds of used diapers per day. Diapers in plastic bags are dumped into the machines, which produce material for the pellets about a day later.
The company is not alone.
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Total Care System of Fukuoka, Japan, has established a way of dissolving diapers in a special solution and turning them into pulp and plastic for use as a construction material and as solid fuel, according to a Japanese newspaper.
And U.K. firm Knowaste has a similar plan for the nappy, though the company concentrates primarily on turning used diapers into recycled products such as building materials. Knowaste announced plans last month to expand via an $18 million facility to recycle diapers -- the first in such plant in England.
Poo power seems to be on the rise.