Dr. Cid Clement Speaks on the Caltech Solar Toilet



On Monday, April 13, Polytechnic student Phillip Zhou was the first to present his Global Scholar project using a Zoom webinar format. Although the presentation had been planned to be in person on Poly’s campus, Phillip seamlessly moved the entire effort online, due to the Safer at Home state order). Well edited and presented, Phillip worked with Mr. Yen, Ms. Diederich, Mr. Carager, Mr. Prater, and Dr. Cid to develop an engaging and interactive presentation. Phillip’s example made it easier for other Global Scholars to have a model to follow for moving online, which I deeply appreciated.

Phillip’s presentation featured Dr. Clement Antoine A. Cid, a Senior Research Engineer at Caltech, who is leading the technical improvements and commercialization efforts of the Caltech Solar Toilet between Caltech and for-profit companies in the US, India, China, and France. Dr. Cid graduated with a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Caltech. While a graduate student, he was part of a Caltech research team that won the part of the Caltech research team who won the $100,000 Grand Challenge Prize awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in August 2012 for Reinventing The Toilet. Using solar power, the toilet breaks down water and human waste into fertilizer and hydrogen, which can be stored in hydrogen fuel cells as energy. The treated water can then be reused to flush the toilet or for irrigation. The toilet operates “off the grid” without connections to water, sewer, or electrical lines. This toilet will save lives and will improve the quality of life for many. The next step is to continue testing, to develop methods for repairs that can easily be done on-site, and to decrease the cost of production. 

I am looking forward to following how this invention revolutionizes sanitation by moving away from the need for costly and resource-intensive centralized sewage waste processing to a more distributed and local system that is easily accessible for a greater number of people.

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Matthew Burke
Hi! My name is Matthew, and I’m a 2020 Global Scholar at the Polytechnic School. I have been studying French at Poly for the past three years. A highlight of attending Poly has been the Global Initiatives Program. Through this program, our family has hosted students from Victor DuRuy and Saint Martin schools in France, as well as from Nirayama HS in Japan; I also have had the opportunity to visit France as part of this exchange program; our group travel blog is: http://polygipfrance.blogspot.com I am part of LaunchX Team Emergence. We are creating an environmentally conscious startup to increase the lifecycle of external power chargers and electrical cords, in an effort to protect our environment from e-waste. We will be heading to MIT on May 4, 2019, to compete as Global Finalists and will be pitching our business to gain funding and support. Follow us @cordrestored and visit us at www.cordrestored.com I hope to share my LaunchX experience as part of my Capstone Project.