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How To Turn Urine Into Electrical Power - Science/Technology - Nairaland

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How To Turn Urine Into Electrical Power by eldoc2003(m): 4:57am On Oct 22, 2014
“URINE and faeces to you”, explains a dodgy
sewer-manager in one of Reginald Hill’s crime
novels, “is bread and butter to me.” And he is
not the only one. The BioEnergy Team, led by
Ioannis Ieropoulos of the Bristol Robotics
Laboratory (BRL) in Britain, are hoping to profit
from working with the stuff too. They have
developed a new technique to turn urine into
electrical power—or “urine-tricity” as they call
it.
People around the world produce an estimated
6.4 trillion litres of urine every year. BRL, a
collaboration between the University of Bristol
and the University of the West of England, want
to make the most of this abundant resource.
At the core of urine-tricity are microbial fuel
cells (MFCs), which contain live microbes. When
urine flows through an MFC the microbes
consume it as part of their normal metabolic
process. This, in turn, frees electrons.
Electrodes within the cell gather these
electrons and when they are connected to an
external circuit a current is generated.
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The BRL team mounted a series of cigar-tube-
sized MFCs into a single unit. Attaching this
unit to the outlet pipe from a urinal allowed a
stream of fresh urine to flow through the cells.
Fresh, in this context, is urine not more than a
week old from a healthy individual of average
height and weight. Previous experiments had
fed the MFCs food scraps, dead insects and
grass cuttings. But urine achieved a power
output three times higher than any other
waste product.
Why does urine work so well? In the earlier
tests the microbes were quickly satiated on a
heavy diet, Dr Ieropoulos believes. This was
because the material contained a high
proportion of organic matter. The low level of
organic carbon in urine, combined with
favourable acidity and electrical conductivity,
made all the difference. Where earlier tests
produced minimal power, urine had the vim to
recharge commercially available batteries,
including those in mobile phones.
It is early days, but the work—which is being
supported by a number of organisations,
including the Gates Foundation—shows that
urine could have the potential to make a
significant contribution to renewable energy. It
might also provide a commercial incentive to
build more toilets—over 2.5 billion people
around the world have no access to proper
sanitation. Dr Ieropoulos and his team now
plan to examine the potential of faeces as a
possible power source. They have a higher
organic-carbon level, but the scientists think
that might be an acceptable price to pay for
abundant availability and a self-regulating
supply chain.
www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21610187-going-loo-can-recharge-smartphone-pee-power#b08g12t20w14

Re: How To Turn Urine Into Electrical Power by technophile(m): 7:36am On Oct 23, 2014
Like 3 to 4 or few more years ago I heard a Nigerian guy discovered this ish, and that is what he was using in his house, I even watched it on a tv news, but now I don't even know the whereabouts of this guy, I hope this white people have not stolen his invention sha.
Re: How To Turn Urine Into Electrical Power by eldoc2003(m): 9:21am On Oct 26, 2014
technophile:
Like 3 to 4 or few more years ago I heard a Nigerian guy discovered this ish, and that is what he was using in his house, I even watched it on a tv news, but now I don't even know the whereabouts of this guy, I hope this white people have not stolen his invention sha.
Nigeria has got talent, if only our government will invest in folks like that, we won't be where we are today

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