Diaper-fueled power plant going strong after five years

By Frank Wiesner Jun 5, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Meckenbeuren, Germany - An environmentally-friendly power station fuelled by diapers discarded by incontinent inmates of old-age homes has now been running for five years and is turning a profit.

'Windel-Willi (Diaper Danny) puts out 1,240 kilowatts,' says Marco Nauerz, head of the construction section at the Liebenau Foundation in Meckenbeuren, on the German side of Lake Constance.

Nauerz is the driving force behind the power station that puts out enough energy to power a laundry coping with eight tonnes of washing a day, a kitchen providing 3,000 meals a day and greenhouses covering 96,000 square metres.

'All the energy is used,' Nauerz says.

Windel-Willi can incinerate up to 4,200 tonnes of diapers a year, although currently it is burning 3,800 tonnes at a temperature of around 1,000 degrees Celsius. The emissions are filtered and the ash disposed of.

Nauerz is confident that full output will be achieved later this year.

The foundation's old age home provides 1,000 tonnes, and the rest is delivered from hospitals and local authorities in the area in the south of Germany.

The plant has been profitable since last year, when it began to take larger deliveries.

The foundation charges 128 euros (185 dollars) to take in a tonne of diapers, and when the income from the energy is included, there is an annual profit of 1.2 million euros - a healthy return on a total investment of 3.5 million euros since 2006.

'It has paid off,' Nauer says with some pride, noting that the foundation saves around 800,000 litres of oil a year.

Michael Staiber, electrical engineer at the foundation, believes the idea could catch on. A large city like Stuttgart could fuel a similar power station with a catchment area of 25 kilometres in radius, while rural areas would need twice that, he says.

There has been foreign interest in the concept, with groups from the United States, Italy and Spain visiting to inspect.

'No one has yet imitated it,' Nauerz says. But he remains hopeful, and the system is under patent.