Stanford engineers treat waste water with rocket science by burning emissions.
In recent experiments, researchers demonstrated that under laboratory conditions nitrous oxide gas and methane could be produced from waste water using a low-oxygen technique. The methane could power the plant, but unfortunately, nitrous oxide is a significant greenhouse gas - more than 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
A rocket thruster that runs on nitrous oxide can decompose it into pure nitrogen and oxygen gas, releasing enough energy to heat an engine to almost 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it red hot, and shooting gases out at almost 5,000 feet per second.
A single thruster about the size of a basketball could potentially consume all of the nitrous oxide produced by a typical treatment plant.
The end result is a waste water plant that requires no extra source of energy, burning its own methane for power, and emitting no greenhouse gases after burning them in the rocket thruster.
