New York, June 12 (IANS) Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of Sulabh International that runs public toilets in India, has been awarded the Renewable Energy Award for developing low cost toilet technology to produce energy out of human excreta.
American Actor Darren Moore presented the award to Pathak Thursday at a function organized by the Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization at the United Nations headquarters.

The annual awards recognize the achievements of individuals and institutions in response to the crisis of climate change and sustainable global energy resources.

Sulabh has designed and promoted a toilet system that organically breaks down human excreta into trapped biogas that can be burned to provide cooking fuel and electricity.

Pathak, along with his team, has developed an indigenous two-pit toilet technology which is not only cost effective but also produces biogas. Recycling and reuse of human excreta for biogas generation is an important way to get rid of health hazards.

Sulabh is the pioneering organization in the field of biogas generation from public toilet complexes. After a series of experiments, the organization developed a more efficient design of biogas plant that has been approved by the Indian Ministry of Non-conventional energy.

Based on ‘Sulabh Model’ design, 190 biogas plants of 35 to 60 cubic metres per day gas production capacity have been installed by Sulabh in different states of the country.

The design developed by Sulabh does not require manual handling of human excreta and there is complete recycling and resource recovery from the wastes.