Femsyn: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/12qseo/four_african_teenagers_invent_a_urinepowered/
Intelligent argument/scrutiny @ its best, not some silly talk

Unique!:
Wow! When my daughter came home for the mid term break during salah and claimed her school had invented an urine powered generator, I paid her no attention. But now, seeing this! And in their school uniforms too, wow! Is all I'll say.

I'm really proud of you girls!

einstein_e:
The guys there(on Reddit) see this 'invention' as an evidence that Nigeria is a land of scammers. @ topic, the invention is implausible. It's a hoax planned by their principal.

DUDE!!

After reading that thread.. I have to agree that these 4 Yoruba girls tried to scam us. They should be arrested by EFCC for fraud. .. CHOI!!!!


The amount of energy required to convert piss to hydrogen, is just too much especially for the amount of hydrogen generated which woudnt be enough to power anything!!!

topsyking: RUBBISH invention....

topsyking: RUBBISH invention....

JEALOUSY, JEALOMA!!!

Foxybone:

Sorry bro, I did that before you....

This guys should bring their generator to my office building to collect urine, infact, urine is now for sale.... Men, new business in town...

On a serious note, thumbs up to the girls for bring in a smelly invention, imagine you storing jerry cans of urine in your toilet because it is cheaper

But on a lighter note... I came 3rd after a hard struggle with Afam4eva

topsyking: RUBBISH invention....

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]

vanstanzy:

YES,ITS NOT THE BEST OF INVENTIONS, BUT LEARN TO PRAISE INGENUITY OR GO OUT THERE AND CREATE SOMETHING BETTER, INSTEAD OF REPORTING UR MYTH BUSTING SKILLS HERE. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, THESE GIRLS DID WHAT U COULDN'T DO, PERIOD.

Na wah o!!

First of all, It is a great invention if only it works..

All I did was scientifically show you the flaws with this so-called invention.. Even sef whats your f`ucking problem.. In the world of science, when you put out your so called inventions or theories, it will be challenged. These girls just put out one and it is being challenged and you are here talking shiit?! As a theory, this their claim does not soun plausible, thats all we did..

I dont expect you to understand the concept of science.. They should go and patent it na, if they are so certain about the invention..

And You are right, they did something I couldnt do.. which was Tell a National Lie on Internetional television..

lollydyss: Nigerian Girls Invent Urine-Powered Generator
[img]http://4.bp..com/-DF6aCEc1k08/UJtPCCRqRCI/AAAAAAAAXEI/NroVJEByFFI/s1600/Urine_powered_generator.jpg[/img]
Possibly one of the more unexpected products at Maker Faire Africa this year in Lagos is a urine powered generator, created by four girls. The girls are Duro-Aina Adebola (14), Akindele Abiola (14), Faleke Oluwatoyin (14) and Bello Eniola (15).

The generator is on display at an exhibition in Lagos Nigeria where people from the tiniest villages to those from big cities are talking about making stuff. This is part of an initiative by ‘Maker Faire Movement’ which seeks to showcase how traditional handicrafts can be a solution in the wake of expensive robot.

Their invention ensures that 1 Liter of urine gives you 6 hours of electricity.

The system works like this:

1. Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.

2. The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.

3. The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.

4. This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.

via BBChttp://www.naijapicks.com/2012/11/nigerian-girls-invent-Generator.html?m=1

ON SECOND THOUGHT, ME THINKS THE GENERATOR RUNS ON URINE (THEY'VE FOUND A WAY OF HARNESSING URINE TO PRODUCE ELECTRICITY)INSTEAD OF WHAT THE TOPIC IS INSINUATING. BUT ALL THE SAME, THESE GIRLS HAVE DONE WELL UTILIZING THEIR INGENUITY WHICH AFRICANS HARDLY DO EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF CORRUPTION. AM I WRONG?

vanstanzy:

YES,ITS NOT THE BEST OF INVENTIONS, BUT LEARN TO PRAISE INGENUITY OR GO OUT THERE AND CREATE SOMETHING BETTER, INSTEAD OF REPORTING UR MYTH BUSTING SKILLS HERE. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, THESE GIRLS DID WHAT U COULDN'T DO, PERIOD.

Okija_juju:


Na wah o!!

First of all, It is a great invention if only it works..

All I did was scientifically show you the flaws with this so-called invention.. Even sef whats your f`ucking problem.. In the world of science, when you put out your so called inventions or theories, it will be challenged. These girls just put out one and it is being challenged and you are here talking shiit?! As a theory, this their claim does not soun plausible, thats all we did..

As a welder, I dont expect you to understand the concept of science.. They should go and patent it na, if they are so certain about the invention..

And You are right, they did something I couldnt do.. which was Tell a National Lie on Internetional television..

OK, THEIR INVENTION HAS TO BE CHALLENGED TO BRING OUT THE BEST IN IT.
CALLING ME A WELDER, I LAUGH HYSTERICALLY . THIS TACTICS OF URS IS SOOO STALE.

vanstanzy:

OK, THEIR INVENTION HAS TO BE CHALLENGED TO BRING OUT THE BEST IN IT.
CALLING ME A WELDER, I LAUGH HYSTERICALLY . THIS TACTICS OF URS IS SOOO STALE.

Okija_juju: Wow 4 Yoruba girls invent urine powered generator.. I am impressed..


But wait o!! So we would have to be peeing into our genny na?!

Kslib: Ah good news...
No wonder,today i went to first bank to withdraw cash from the ATM machine and saw this big black container which had this writing with red paint on the body "PLEASE URINATE HERE".. I was like WTF.. Now i know why...

booqee: you're a fool!