- LONDON (Reuters) -- Britain's
Science Museum says it is considering a radical way of paying its hefty
energy bills -- using visitors' excrement.
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- The central London museum said it was considering taking
the waste from its 14 toilet blocks and converting it into electricity.
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- "With free admission it would be a great way for
visitors to give something back to the museum and help keep the overheads
down," said the museum's head Jon Tucker. "We have almost 3 million
visitors each year and have huge electricity bills."
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- The museum said the plan would be to siphon off waste
from the toilets, store it and then either burn it as fuel in a mini-power
station or turn it into electricity using a microbial fuel cell.
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- The power produced from the excrement of 100,000 visitors
could produce enough to power 500 light bulbs, while also breaking down
harmful organic matter, it said.
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