In a year where cryptocurrencies went crazy, NFTs took off and talk of the metaverse really started to pick up, this toilet that turns poop into money really represents 2021’s best advancement.
An engineering professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea made headlines in July for his toilet that converts human waste into biogas and manure.
It’s called the BeeVi toilet and uses a vacuum pump to send the waste to an underground tank, where microorganisms break it down and convert it to methane. The remaining poop can be used for manure.
“If we think out of the box, faeces has precious value to make energy and manure. I have put this value into ecological circulation,” said Professor Cho Jae-weon, the inventor of the BeeVi toilet, to Reuters.
Considering the amount of waste a human or group of humans can produce in a day, it’s a pretty decent idea. Converting any waste into energy is rarely a bad thing.
But wait, what about being able to make money from pooping? Well… it’s a toilet cryptocurrency. It’s not called PoopCoin, though – it’s called Ggool, and each person who uses the toilet earns 10 Ggool per day. Ggool means honey in Korean, which is part of the ‘BeeVi’ name.
“How much is 10 Ggool?” I hear you ask? Well… it’s not really a cryptocurrency… outside of UNIST University. You can’t really invest in it, and there’s no way to sell it or spend it outside that university. I’m sorry to disappoint you, long-time poopers and first-time crypto enthusiasts.
Unless you want to buy noodles, fruits or books on the campus, Ggool won’t get you far. That’s a shame, but surely the BeeVi has a long way to go!
Seriously, never mind the bit where you can make money from using the Crypto Latrine (BeeVi), the implications of being able to make harvestable methane and manure at the site of creation for use elsewhere is pretty big. It could be a big step towards in-home renewables.
We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for the BeeVi.