The Seasteading Institute

I am just going to assume you have enough power on a seastead from wind solar or whatever. There are toilets that just dry out and burn up the human waste. You can then just dump the ashes somewhere or mix into your soil or concrete? The same companies also make composting toilets. I tend to not like “systems” that require a constant supply of additional thing, but there are chemical toilets for the boating industry. They mainly sterilize the waste before it is dumped. I would prefer the compost or incinerating toilets.

From http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/314631/texas_pilgrims_in_space/index.html :

“Some studies are looking into the use of fish — specifically tilapia — as a way to recycle shower water, toilet waste and the water clothes are washed in. Tilapia eat human waste and are safe for human consumption afterward, said Vickie Kloeris, who manages the Space Food Systems Laboratory at Johnson Space Center.”

Apparently tilapia can survive in brackish water. Perhaps we use gray water as ballast in the spars and farm tilapia within them?

And to think Tilapia is my favorite fish to cook =

Anyway, someone mentioned creating organic food onboard a seastead. Heck, I don’t care what anyone does on their seastead, but for me – I can’t imagine being able to afford the added cost of creating organic food onboard a seastead. Growing organically requires about twice as much acreage/crop, requires an order of magnitude more pesticides, and frankly would castrate a seastead’s ability to grow enough to feed itself even if everyone onboard slaved from day to night on the task. Don’t get me wrong, I like some organic food – Horizon organic milk won out on a blind taste test my girlfriend setup for me… but there’s no possible way I can imagine a seastead would have enough room to grow substantial amounts of food let alone grow it organicly.

This guy sums up the issues with organic food quite nicely.

I guess this is the thread in which to bring this up, but I just wanted to point out that if we were to establish waste treatment plants, we would not need them on board every seastead. Especially if we can divert greywater to other uses, blackwater (essentially, poop) could simply sit in a tank until collected periodically by ships making the rounds, pumping out poop, and carrying it to a sewage treatment stead. Self-sufficiency, if desirable, does not necessarily imply that every seastead would be entirely self-sufficient, but rather that the community would be self-sufficient.

There is already a precedent for such a system, as any homeowner with a septic tank is aware (though of course septic fields get rid of excess water, leaving only the solid waste to be pumped at multi-year intervals).

From that point, the question of how to dispose of human waste need only be left to those whose business it is to do so.

Likewise, I won’t need to enter into a discussion of farming here, because that discussion is best left to those people who want to farm. Freedom on the seas doesn’t mean that we leave community and specialization behind – it just means that we get to easily change which communities we want to associate with.

Anyway, some farmers will want to try organic farming, some will want to use genetically engineered crops, and some might try to raise algae in tanks. The beauty of freedom is that all this experimentation can take place, and more than one way of solving problems can be found.

I remember reading about 20 years ago, that it took the manure of about 40 dairy cows to produce enough methane to cook for a family of 4, so it’s not really practical as a primary energy source. On the other hand, a methane digester is an excellent liquid manure composter, if you primarily used it for that and just trapped the methane as a minor side product, that may be practical. You need to do something with the shit after all; and it works better as fertilizer if it has been composted first.

Methane digestion needs anaerobic conditions. Ordinary composting (garden composting and composting toilets) use aerobic conditions specifically to prevent formation of methane.

I remember reading about 20 years ago, that it took the manure of about 40 dairy cows to produce enough methane to cook for a family of 4, so it’s not really practical as a primary energy source. On the other hand, a methane digester is an excellent liquid manure composter, if you primarily used it for that and just trapped the methane as a minor side product, that may be practical. You need to do something with the shit after all; and it works better as fertilizer if it has been composted first.

Methane digestion needs anaerobic conditions. Ordinary composting (garden composting and composting toilets) use aerobic conditions specifically to prevent formation of methane.

Mother Earth News has an old artical on a 1-cow digester. It uses a modified 55 gal drum and some rubber inner-tubes. It was sufficient to cook 1 meal, for 1 person, per day.

The Chinese Bio-gas digester, uses all animal wastes (people, pets, livestock) to produce methane for cooking and heating, along with fairly well processed sludge, for fertilizer. I would suggest adding an aerobic process, after the anaerobicsfor best safety and least complexity.

To increase the heat-value of the gas, it is necessary to remove the CO2. This has been achieved with a lime/water solution(hydrated lime/white-wash), which can be renewed by simply heating the solution to release the CO2. Alternately, the mixed gasses can be run through a multi-stage compressor and the CO2 precipitated out, making “Dry-Ice.” Personally, I’d use the simpler method and release the CO2 into a greenhouse, until I decide I need the Dry-Ice, which could be used in old-fashioned ice-boxes and vented into the greenhouse…

Nice to have options, at any rate.

Later,

J.L..F.

If you can’t swim with the big fish, stick to the reef

And a better use for the worm casings is to feed freshwater fish (tilapia? Catfish?)…you can put the worm farms over the fish tanks, as a matter of fact, self-feeding. And if a worm falls through, the fish don’t mind.

I have heard of feeding the fish with worms, but never with the castings. Any refs for this? sounds interesting…

– You may get what you want, but will you want what you get?

“Some studies are looking into the use of fish — specifically tilapia — as a way to recycle shower water, toilet waste and the water clothes are washed in. Tilapia eat human waste and are safe for human consumption afterward, said Vickie Kloeris, who manages the Space Food Systems Laboratory at Johnson Space Center.” – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10179202/

Ok, the yuk factor is back.

– You may get what you want, but will you want what you get?