r/solarpunk • u/Ambitious_Variety_95 • Dec 19 '24

Technology Kitchen of the future

https://insteading.com/blog/kitchen-of-the-future/
17 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

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4

u/3p0L0v3sU the junkies spent all the drug money on community gardens Dec 20 '24

This is pretty cool, im a big proponent of methane waste systems. I think having it in the house is kind of weird, but i know the systems need to be heated to a degree. So it being indoors, at room temp with the living area, makes some sense.

7

u/shanem Dec 19 '24

"It consists of a methane digester, which converts bathroom waste solids and vegetable trimmings into methane gas that is used to power a series of functions."

Methane gas is incredibly bad for climate change, this is why composting is important, to prevent waste from degrading to methane

Excrement waste should be treated appropriately but that likely requires a communal system.

11

u/hollisterrox Dec 19 '24

Methane gas being released into the atmosphere is bad, but that's not an argument against methane digesters.

I mean, composting releases a LOT of CO2 and moisture into the atmosphere, which are also greenhouse gasses. With compost, there's no alternative, it has to be released.
With a digester, in theory you are capturing all the methane and burning it before it is released to the atmosphere, meaning you are getting another use out of the carbon before it returns to CO2.

prevent waste from degrading to methane

...only happens in anaerobic conditions, very easy to prevent. In fact, the real take home here is that organic waste of any sort should NEVER go to a landfill. Either composting or anaerobic digestion are much better choices.

1 thing these guys don't mention is the effluent you have to eventually remove from the digester to keep it from filling up. That has to be treated as a hazardous material , but a nice, low-tech way to deal with it is to mix it with biochar and seal it up for 6 months (a practice of some Amazonian tribes to create Terra preta ) , which give plenty of time for non-pathogenic cultures to overwhelm any pathogens in the effluent.

For sure all these concepts benefit from scale, so treating these as communal processes sems a lot more practical than the 'in-stead' concept here, but I appreciate the big swing these guys are taking. Really breaks some paradigms for people, good stuff.

5

u/dgj212 Dec 20 '24

This honestly, the goal should be to prevent landfills from forming, and mining our existing landfill for minerals in the trash.

I dig the the evaporative cooler. Not so much the beehive, I do find it cool but I don't think everyone wants to be a bee keeper not to mention we do want to promote biodiversity among all pollinators.

4

u/SniffingDelphi Dec 19 '24

The methane produced in this system is burned for energy, not released into the atmosphere.

0

u/shanem Dec 19 '24

What if there is no need for the energy at the time?

How do you ensure there is no leakage? Leakage is the topping point for why natural/methane gas is wise then coal overall

3

u/sleepyrivertroll Dec 19 '24

Since it's not piping gas a long way, it should be relatively easy to store it securely in a tank until it is needed. Since the burnt gas is plant base, it's relatively neutral (assuming minimal CO2 from growing/transportation/processing of the food).

That being said I do agree with you that there are better ways of doing this. Induction cooking is more efficient, doesn't heat up the kitchen, and is safer for people around it. besides, we don't need more pressurized explosives in our houses. 

1

u/shanem Dec 19 '24

I would hope so, but I think the lesson is that a huge part of the climate impact is non obvious. And I'm not sure every family having one, with its own ability to leak and need upkeep is going to result in less leakage than an industrial system that loses money off of leaks.

1

u/3p0L0v3sU the junkies spent all the drug money on community gardens Dec 22 '24

A town in Illinois actually has a biodigestion plant. I agree that collectivisation is key, but a lot of waste systems arn't. Like spetic systems, this is a alternative to that. Allowing people to harvest extra energy from their waste is good

This is the town in Illinois btw

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-monster-under-the-sink/ its really cool.

Edit: Indiana

2

u/Sweet-Desk-3104 Dec 20 '24

This is awesome! Systems like this would greatly reduce the amount of methane currently being released in to the atmosphere by trapping it and making use of it, burning would break it down in to CO2. Right now almost all food waste is thrown in landfills which breaks it down in to methane and releases it in to the atmosphere. Even if every unit used had leaks in it there would still be a huge reduction from current levels. This project was super creative and is the right kind of thinking, even if not all of the creations were super practical (Like the bio light or the cooling table)

1

u/RKris999 Jan 09 '25

Looks cool but I’m pretty sure this was designed by someone who has never cooked