SeptErgy

Biogas mass production unit from human waste stored in septic tanks.

The fast growth of population in Indonesia is followed by the growth in demand for energy to support people’s activities. Urban Indonesians, especially in the Greater Jakarta Metropolis, are forced to live in dense, tall buildings with the lack of public spaces to develop energy generators. On average, a single high rise building can house approximately 100 people that constantly produce bio waste each day. The processing of such waste is a problem that could disturb the resident’s convenience. With the scarcity potential of fossil-based energy, the movement toward a sustainable resource such as biowaste and biogas is imminent. With the solution we propose, not only we create a sustainable source of energy, the quality of life of the residents will be improved as well.

To solve the problem stated above, we have SeptErgy. SeptErgy will equip septic tanks with a reactor compartment that could produce energy from the human waste generated in the building, and circulate it to power the building. This would allow the building to be self-sufficient and sustainable while also optimizing waste processing and decreasing dependence on fossil-based fuel. This solution is best used in densely populated areas such as the Greater Jakarta Metro, and many other urban areas that are facing the same problem.

Our solution will serve the wellbeing of both people and nature in dense areas, mainly in the Greater Jakarta Metro as our planned launching venue. The need for self-sustainable housing space in a densely populated area without invading public space recently increased with the quick growth in population and demand in energy. SeptErgy provides a solution that can solve it. People will no longer have to experience blackouts, expensive electricity and poor waste management that causes discomfort in life. People can focus on more things that matter in their life. Nature will be conserved by the decrease in non-renewable energy usage and waste.

Our team consists of several undergraduate students with different backgrounds, especially in engineering and science. We have worked with renewable resources processing before and currently trying to expand our projects in the form of SeptErgy. Despite being based in Bandung, most of our members are residents of the Greater Jakarta Metro and are impacted by the problems we try to solve. We believe that collaboration will bring us an everlasting impact in this world.

We are aware that our project requires high cooperation with the residents and owners of the buildings. We have surveyed more than 300 residents of the Greater Jakarta Metro about their view on sustainable energy and the ethics consideration of using human waste as a sustainable energy.We had positive feedback that showed us the desire for self-sustainable buildings and proper waste management in the area, and that our plan requires urgent attention from the local government.

Our solution could be innovative since the processing of human waste into electric energy, especially in urban communities such as Jakarta, Indonesia has not been researched and developed so well, our innovation is to optimalise the efficiency and the effectivity of space, we are using septic tanks integrated with reactors that could process the waste and convert the biogas or biomethane into electric energy, we believe that this solution could be catalytic especially in our city, Jakarta, since it could open many job vacancies and/or increase the understandings of current technicians/engineers about this solution, so it could be an alternative energy source to achieve a sustainable living space.

Our goal is that by the following next year, this solution could be tested and implemented from pilot to the large scale, that is this solution could be implemented in every vertical-living space step-by-step.

The core technology for our solution is the optimalisation of existing tech, that is the septic tanks that is usually used to store human waste, by modifying it with reactors and instrumentation technologies, we could convert the methane contained in the septic tank into electricity.

We are planning to serve it from local communities (such as single apartment), from small scale up to 100 people.

The financial barriers and current processing technology exist in Indonesia are not sufficient enough for the development of this solution, therefore, more researches and developments are required for the implementation of this solution.

Institut Teknologi Bandung (university affiliate)

We are providing a commercial use of this solution to be implemented by many apartment developers and/or metropolitan industrial uses.

We are trying to partner with institutions, such as local governments, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), National Research Institutions (such as BRIN).