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Tom Broadbent's energy-capturing device: Flush with success

By Rain Noe - July 22, 2010

in Tech | Object Culture

In addition to the bigger sources of alternative energy--solar, wind, hydro--the future will hopefully see us capturing energy from all manner of smaller sources that are now wasted: Excess heat thrown off by computers, subway turnstiles cranked by millions per day, footfalls of commuters descending staircases.

One workable example of such sources is HighDro Power, a contraption that captures energy from falling wastewater--essentially, toilet flushes--and turns it into electricity. Same principle as a hydroelectric dam, just cleverly miniaturized and connected to our bathrooms.

HighDro Power was conceived of by Tom Broadbent, a recent industrial design graduate from the UK's Leicester's De Montfort University, and entered in both the Dyson Awards and the UK's Grand Designs Live.

"The inspiration for HighDro Power was literally a 'Eureka!' moment that came when I emptied a bath in a hotel and found that it cleared very quickly and with a large amount of force," explains Broadbent, who built a working prototype, seen above. "It seemed logical that this energy should be harnessed in some way to create green electricity and help governments meet targets and it filled an obvious gap in the market."

via creative boom

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Tim Sokoloff

14 years ago

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This is NOT a new idea. You can visit http://www.haveacause.com/report.html and view the whole house blueprint that I designed for my Environminiums a few years ago and it utilizes a lot more than just the flushing of the toilet. It even produces power from incoming rain water into the cistern that is located in the basements of the units. Not to take anything away from Tom, but this is an idea that has been around for a while.
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Ben

14 years ago

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ah i sketched this idea a couple of years ago, but never had time to develop it... darn! well done to Tom though... well realised!
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Mike P.

14 years ago

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Great, something else to block the soil pipe in the house.

The force of water is already used to clear itself and any nasties the (sometimes) huge distance to the sewer.
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Steve Keppel-Jones

14 years ago

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There should be some way to integrate this unit with the concept of the Power Pipe, which uses the falling warm wastewater to pre-heat the incoming cold water headed for the water heater tank (or tankless heater). The Power Pipe would be more efficient if the falling water stayed in contact with the heat exchanger coils for a longer time, which is right in line with the slowing-down effect of the HighDro Power unit. A direct meld of the two concepts might not be quite correct, but there should be a way to operate both the turbine and a heat exchanger simultaneously...
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Shalin

14 years ago

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Clever...nothing "waste"-ed. sorry, couldn't resist ;)

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Matt

14 years ago

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Waste water, fine, but what about all the crap?
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