Cool, but whatever is coming out the exhaust wont be pretty

booqee: shattaap....i'm not in sec sch. Mofo

...sharap there....u that just graduated from pry 6 three months ago....u are here spewing thrash about something you don't know....
Now I know where your thinking deficiency lies.....You don't know the meaning of the word "INVENTION" nor the fact that the knowledge and theory needed to produce this urine-powered generator is far..far beyond the secondary school walls as far as the Nigerian educational system is concerned...

[img]http://4.bp..com/-DF6aCEc1k08/UJtPCCRqRCI/AAAAAAAAXEI/NroVJEByFFI/s1600/Urine_powered_generator.jpg[/img]

Wow, bright girls.Nigerians are fantastic.Just love their darling little faces, kisses


in reference to many of the comments, it just goes to show why Africa is the way it is. Jealousy stunts development, which is why so many of them sit in the sun all day waiting for handouts from white folks.

Make I kuku go buy GP tank to carry store urine #TheFutureIsBright

bright007: there is something fishy about this story...the four inventors are in the range of 14-15 years of age and are from Nigeria....a country where even our Professors cant produce tooth-pick...which school did this gurls attend?...so many kwessions to ask about this crap of a story?

You know bright, that was my exact first thought.. But seeing the way a nairalander was attacked for voicing a negative thought, I simply kept it to myself.. This is Naija.. Our Very Own Naija.. And for those students inventing this generator, It's Impossi-Cant-Fit-Happen jor! Na strategy wey the school wan use promote themselves. If you check well, it's affliated with a top government mogul

topsyking: RUBBISH invention....

Mumu, you no go eva see better thing make you appreciate, tell me is there anything any member of your family or even you have invented. Abeg my pweety sisters, 3 gboosah 4 una!

gse-integrity:
1. Where is the fourth girl?
2. How long can the system last? I mean the whole of the stuff. Remember a white man will tell you 'This will last for 100 years' sort of.

just say u don't follow d invention rather than rubbishin d idea. Its stil on a test & run

bright007: there is something fishy about this story...the four inventors are in the range of 14-15 years of age and are from Nigeria....a country where even our Professors cant produce tooth-pick...which school did this gurls attend?...so many kwessions to ask about this crap of a story?

There are so many young geniuses in Nigeria. You need to read full article and further Internet search, pay a visit to their school

I think water will work as well as urine

Good news, and bravo to the girls, this will sound a warning to the GEJ led government and his team of economic expatriates ministers of Finance and Petroleum, that very soon their over relied on Petroleum backed economy will soon be irrelevant in the market. It is high time they look for alternative resources than over relying on the crude oil. A word is enough for a wise.

[color=#000099][/color][b][/b] FEDRAL GOVERNMENT TO IMPLEMENT URINE SUBSIDY DUE TO THE HIGH COST OF PURCHRSING URINE WHICH GOES FOR N1000 PER LITER.

bright007: ...sharap there....u that just graduated from pry 6 three months ago....u are here spewing thrash about something you don't know....
Now I know where your thinking deficiency lies.....You don't know the meaning of the word "INVENTION" nor the fact that the knowledge and theory needed to produce this urine-powered generator is far..far beyond the secondary school walls as far as the Nigerian educational system is concerned...

dumb cretin..words fall from ur mouth like shi't from arrse. I wonder if u reason well before talking.

There was news about the invention of water powered generator few years ago, also by high school girls. We haven't any about the story since then.
Expect this story to die with immediate effect.

This will end in urine subsidy.

bright007: ..stop exhibiting foolishness here jare....when I was in ss3,I was a member of Jet club where we constructed a ll manners of devices ranging from fridge,fan,toys etc.
Most of us did not even understand the principle behind these technologies but we were guarded by our secondary school physics teacher who did most of d work.
The best Nigeria has ever done is try to copy what others have done in other countries,and still finds it difficult to do.
We have not been able to invent anything capable of solving a global problem..mtchewww.

people with nothing upstairs are always quick to insult. You are the fool!

Okija_juju: [b]I died..

Students with their Urine powered generator at Maker Faire Africa in Lagos

Now on the face of it it ticks a lot of boxes – developing nation ingenuity, young kids sticking it to the energy companies and the green credentials (hey – urine’s a renewable resource right?).

But I’m not so convinced.

The claims

The claims is that “1 Liter of urine gives you 6 hours of electricity.”

Wow, 1 Litre of urine and 6 hours of electricity.

The following is on the site explaining it.

The system works like this:

Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.
The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.
The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.
This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.
Along the whole way there are one-way valves for security, but let’s be honest that this is something of an explosive device…

What is in Urine?

Going to that bastion of semi-reliable information (wikipedia) – I find that:

Urine is an aqueous solution of greater than 95% water, with the remaining constituents, in order of decreasing concentration urea 9.3 g/L, chloride 1.87 g/L, sodium 1.17 g/L, potassium 0.750 g/L, creatinine 0.670 g/L and other dissolved ions, inorganic and organic compounds.

Ok, so nearly all water – and 9.3 g/L of urea. Hrmm.. On the face of it and with limited research into the chemical energy in urea – that’s not sounding like something that is likely to power a generator with a 10-40% efficiency (and that’s being very generous with the range).

The apparatus

Let’s take a look at the picture from here.




The setup

Now it looks to me like a very daggy looking battery (the “electrolytic cell”), several water filter holders, a modified gas cylinder, some tubing, clamps and a generator. The bit from the generator to the electrics is pretty non-contentious – have seen similar things – a light to provide some load/indicator that energy is getting through and some powerpoints to plug the stuff in you want power to.

The “electrolytic cell”

Can’t really see what’s inside that or how it is filled up with urine etc – but keep in mind it’s got to be well sealed enough to pressurise the gas cylinder via the water filter thing in between. Also curious about the wires leading from it to the generator. What’s up with that?


Close-up of the battery and generator



Have they just hooked up the battery to an inverter perhaps? Surely people will expect the generator to be running while it is powering the lights. Or is it supposed to close the loop on supplying power back to produce hydrogen?

Water purifiers



Next in the chain is the first of the water filters. What’s it for? “The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.”
Ok, let’s go with that. First up it has no filter in it. Next up: it’s not pushing liquid through and a “water filter” only makes sense if you’re pushing water through it – I’m not sure what the point of it is – surely the gas would just bubble straight through to the exit? e.g. the liquid in it is irrelevant like blowing into a glass with a straw not in the water – the air doesn’t magically go down into the water – it just stays at the top. If you filled it to the top you might get a bit of water blown out initially but then it would have cleared a path. If it had a hose down it you’d get a sheeha/bong type result – but how it is currently I don’t see how it does anything. It’s ok, these kids don’t hang out with the drop-out pot-heads enough to know how to fashion a bong out of an Orchy bottle. Even if you tipped it upside down during operation it would proceed to blow out all the water until it was clear and then the gas would flow straight through.

Here’s how they are usually set up to filter water:


Water filter.

So water comes in – is pushed or pulled through the filter – and then flows out. If you don’t have the filter there – the water just flows straight out.. If you tried blowing air through – it’d just flow straight to the exit.

So you could take that out of the system – a sign of many “perpetual motion” and “free energy” machines where they stick a big coil, magnet or a mystery big resistor or something in there.

The gas bottle
There’s some things wrong with the gas bottle too.




Some suspect bits on here too

No clamp on the “input” – which I’m not sure what that is and how it works. Looks like a repair job, but not sure what that other bit is – looks like a plug or something on the side of it. The corrosion might be because they welded the wrong metal on there? But generally you don’t want too many valves/openings in your tank as it is a point of failure – certainly not a big drain sized opening or whatever that is.

Another water filter



Then there’s the next bit – don’t have any idea why you would have filters on the stuff going out to the atmosphere (I presume that’s what that is).


What is all this on the end?

Huh? Why would you care about filtering whatever comes out that bit – either they’ve hooked up their sham rig incorrectly (e.g. this stuff with the filters should be hooked to the electrolyte cell or to the gas tank or somewhere that makes sense. Double filtering something that is going nowhere – why? Again, those could be removed for the same impact.

And finally – 6 hours of running a generator on a litre of petrol is probably pushing the friendship a bit – 6 hours of running a generator on 95% water content – unless it’s uranium or fairy dust disolved in it is probably a stretch.

Conclusion

While I’d love to believe the story – I just don’t buy it. There’s either something very wrong with their setup or it’s just pointlessly complex for no apparent reason.

I’m labelling this a quack gadget – in line with the perpetual energy machines, magnet only motors.. Urine powered generators are in good company.

But happy to be proved wrong and we can finally harness the grubs who piss in the street and the urinal at the pub could run the lights.

Anyone else got any thoughts?

[/b]

^


End of discussion.

Sky-walker:
hmmm. 14, 15 years old developed this?

No, na 4 and 5 years dem dey.Which kind question be this..So rhetoric.

Sky-walker:
hmmm. 14, 15 years old developed this?

No, na 4 and 5 years dem dey.Which kind question be this..So rhetoric.

The girls' invention seems to have caused constellation all over the world, featured on Reddit, Engadget et al.

I'm still trying to understand the science behind it myself but a video of it working would not be too much to ask for I think.

Not sure why all the noise for a simple science project. While the girls are not claiming credit for coming up with the principle behind their project, they should be given the credit for attempting to demonstrate what "large purse" science labs and professors are currently working on in the luxury of their well equipped labs, at least until it gets to the field-scale demonstration.

See links below to educate yourself:
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/science-scope/how-pee-powered-fuel-cells-can-generate-electricity/11103
http://www.naturalnews.com/029674_fuel_cells_urine.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/09/pee-power-fuel-hydrogen-urine
http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/2012/03/15/mexican-space-agency-supports-fuel-cell-innovation/

It is apparent that many folks commenting here do not have a clue on the idea behind the gathering where the project was demonstrated. "Maker Faire" I believe is a gathering where people use whatever they have at thier disposal to make whatever they want. Here we have three beautiful aspiring female scientists come up with a set-up that makes electricity from urine. The fact that they attempted it does not mean that they could have produced electricity from urine. And the fact that they demonstrated this successfully using basic tools at their disposal mean that these girls are indeed future innovators. I'll give it to them because they've joined the big league which includes foremost labs in the world. If only they have all the right tools and equipments at their disposal.

@saintohia .... please keep it down because this is not your "trade".

I salute the Girls.

They are inventors, Government should sponsor them for a prototype for Mank of Industry to Finance them.

If you believe that Power sector will have 24/7 hr power supply in this our country, you are have not known Nigeria factor.

Nigeria supply light to Republi of Benin & Ghana for many years without power failure.
but here in Nigeria, Black out every time due to the fact Big boys want to collect Subsidy from Federal Govt. 1.2 Trillion was paid to PHCN some months ago. Have you seen any effect so far. We shall soon start to experience the past if the money had been shared and finished.

The Girls should be sponsored.

We need that Generator, even if we can not use it in Nigeria, some other country will use it and we export Generators to other part of the world.

Thanks

topsyking: RUBBISH invention....

Hey, these are 14/15 year olds doing something creative. Give them some credit.

If this was developed in europe like they extracted drinking water from sewage, I'm sure you'd be "impressed"

The world is a ghetto...if you go urinate somewhere and they use ur urine for ritual..OYO lowa!!

urine is not and cannot be combustible for fvck's sake. its a very good conductor of electricity so it may be used in some electrolytic setup i am no engineer but i think using it in a combustion engine to generate electricity is sTup1d

Will 5day urine power the Gen?

Thanks to these young Nigerian girls, we may shortly be able to replace diesel , kerosine and petrol with own urine, solve energy problems, climb safely out of present economic crises and effectively combat threatening world climate change. 1 liter of your urine gives you 6 hours of electric power. How many liters of urine do you produce per day? I hope giant greedy companies do not stifle and kill off this...Someone thinks this might cause inflation. I think the whole thing would rather bring down inflation and prices. When a commodity is scarce and the demand is high then the price shoots up and becomes inflated. In this case everyone produces urine...and at no cost. No one would set up a factory to produce urine which noone would buy..because any healthy person produces 1.5 liters of urine daily. So he/she produces enough´urine-fuel´ to give him/her 18 hours of almost free electricty every day. The President and the government should seriously look into this matter with the aim of utilizing it for the good of the country.

Da_b¤§§.:
urine is not and cannot be combustible for fvck's sake. its a very good conductor of electricity so it may be used in some electrolytic setup i am no engineer but i think using it in a combustion engine to generate electricity is sTup1d

If you read it properly you will see the urine is not combustible.Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which cracks the urea into nitrogen, water, and hydrogen. Hydrogen is combustible.

mayorsulphide: The world is a ghetto...if you go urinate somewhere and they use ur urine for ritual..OYO lowa!!

Why must you be so paganistic, so supersticious.
How many times do you urinate outside your home?
Who has ever uesed your urine for ritual purposes?
Who is interested in using your "urine for ritual"?
In this case you urinate in your own home, use this urine yourself in your own home to generate your own electricity...

Localamos:

Hey, these are 14/15 year olds doing something creative. Give them some credit.

If this was developed in europe like they extracted drinking water from sewage, I'm sure you'd be "impressed"

We have a real attitude problem in our part of the world. I hope the relevant Nigerian authorities know what to do with these young girls and their knowlege. Isnt it innovative?

From the explanation, what they did was to extract hydrogen from urine and then used it power the generator, it's not a new innovation. For some time now scientist have beeen talking of hydrogen gas as an alternative form of energy by using water, urine,and corn as its source. Last year, some ohio scientist actually said its easier to extract hydrogen from urine than water, but it takes more energy to extract than whatever is generated. That's always been the problem.
I also dont think the girls lay claim to its invention, an over excited bbc reporter reported it as such. It's simply a science fair and just like the secondary school jets competition of the 90's(i dont know whether it still exists)various science projects using locally made materials are exhibited. The input comes mostly from the physics or chemistry teachers but the students are well groomed because they will be the one to explain the principle behind the project. The whole idea is to promote local technology and stimulate young minds towards innovation and creativity.
For those saying copy, copy, well this was how china started and the whole world was laughing at them, now the western nations are seriously worried. china knew that if they could use local technology to replicate western products, then they could churn out cheap but quality goods to the whole world. I wonder where nigeria will be today if we had encouraged our 'made in aba' products.
For the sceptics and cynics,according to bill gates 'the world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself' these girls' faces are all over the internet and major news network e.g nbc, cnet, bbc etc.for their successfull experiment, thats better than being known for attempting suicide over a guy or being pushed down the stairs by a man u met on facebook.

Kilianoka:

If you read it properly you will see the urine is not combustible.Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which cracks the urea into nitrogen, water, and hydrogen. Hydrogen is combustible.

okay yesslightly, but not enough to power that petrol engine

joerux60:

this is called recycling and has been there since the beginning of time. are you aware that
the water that the water that you are drinking is tha same water that was drunk by the first member of
your clan! i.e. rain falls, goes to the river you collect it, use it, discharge it to sewer ponds/rivers and goes to the
oceans. it evaporates back to the sky and comes back again as rain

yes u r on piont let them know