Stanford Researchers Developing Rocket-Powered Sewage Treatment System
Rocket Sewage This nitrous oxide-powered rocket thruster designed at Stanford can also be used in a sewage treatment plant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Stanford University In what sounds like the most over-engineered toilet tech ever, Stanford engineers are using rocket science to clean up sewage. It's actually simpler than it sounds -- the scientists are developing a system that exploits sewage-loving bacteria to produce nitrous oxide, which can be used up by a rocket thruster. The nitrous-powered rocket's only byproduct is hot, pure air. Stanford professor Brian Cantwell specializes in designing rocket thrusters that run on nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas. He and some of his grad students wanted to use nitrous oxide as an emissions-free energy source. While nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas, when it's burned as rocket fuel, the only byproducts are hot oxygen and nitrogen. As a Stanford release explains, Cantwell teamed up...