A group of Tulane’s brightest minds have created a new kind of fart machine, except this one has the potential to save millions of lives. The Humanure Power Project aims to provide toilets to some of India’s most impoverished people and then convert their own waste into affordable electricity.

The team, led by Anoop Jain, just won $31,000 from Dell’s Social Innovation Challenge, and they’re already in India, finding a good spot for their first block of public toilets. NoDef talk to Andrew Ryan, one of the creators that stayed behind while his brainy buddies went to Bihar.

Ryan, who recently earned his Master’s Degree in Public Health from Tulane, said that Jain deserves all the idea credit.

“Anoop is the founder, this is his idea. He was born in Canada but he is Indian, and he goes back regularly. He goes back and volunteers over the summers,” Ryan said.  Other team members include: Alec Barber Grossi, Art Adhatamsoontra, Paul Yourio, Emma Jasinski, and Mary Beth Luster.   

In India, the lack of accessible toilets affects 90 perecent of (650 million) of the population, Ryan said. While many pampered Westerners are disgusted by the idea of life without sewage, Ryan said that the problem of exposed human waste goes well beyond the ick factor.

“It’s actually a huge health issue. It leads to typhoid, cholera, and it kills about 2 million people a year in preventable deaths,” Ryan said.

In addition to making the area healthier, the new toilets will be a source of another commodity in India: electricity.

“Waste will be collected in a bio gas digester. In that anaerobic condition, it actually creates methane. The methane will be pumped out, go into a generator and turn into electricity,” Ryan explained.

From the generators, the power will go to 12-volt batteries, which will in turn be rented to local populations. The rental price will be cheaper than kerosene, which is the current power source many Indians off the power grid depend on to power their homes. Money from the rentals will go directly into creating more community toilet blocks and maintaining existing ones.  

Ryan said the batteries can power a lot more than lights.

“They can use them for cell phones, or to power a small radio," he said. "Essential things for basic living.”

Currently, the team is in Bihar in northeast India. Although they haven’t received their funding yet, Ryan said that they’re getting a head start and trying to implement the structures themselves. Ryan said that people in the communities touched by HPP will need some basic education on how to use their new technology. 

“We’ll have to install wires into these people’s homes. They’ll give people a basic education on their batteries,”  he said.

Ryan also said that there will be six or seven people in the community that will be employed by the project initially, but he hopes to see that number grow in the near future.

Ryan said the most important part of the project’s growth is that it remains sustainable and beneficial to local populations. 

“Our biggest emphasis is on how do we make it safe, how do we make it beneficial for everyone involved,” Ryan said. “We are not only generating revenues from our organization, but we’re actually saving them money. They’re getting electricity cheaper than kerosene, and they’re getting sanitation facilities. They’re funding their own development.”