Energy from urine: smartphones will recharge with pee

    Energy from urine: smartphones will recharge with pee

    Nature calls, mobile responds. Yes, because in a few years pee will be enough to recharge our smartphones. The idea of ​​using one of our body's wastes to produce energy comes from British researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), a joint venture between the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol. Scientists have thus created a fuel cell that uses bacteria to attack urine and, in the process, generate electricity



    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him



    Nature calls, cellular he replies. Yes, because in a few years the pee-pee to reload ours smartphone. The idea of ​​using one of the waste of our body to produce energy is the British researchers of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), a j between the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol. Scientists have thus created one fuel cell which uses i bacteria to attack theurine and, in the process, generate electricity.

    It is not the first time that energy is produced from urine, as happened during the Rio Carnival. It was also investigated the way to to feed the spacecraft of the future with pee. That of cell phones is therefore the latest found. In fact, British researchers have managed to connect a mobile phone to a urine-powered system capable of recharging the battery. Just enough to make a short call or send a text message, but we are working to make the device more efficient. The project was partially funded by the Gates Foundation.

    The bacteria are of the same type as those used in wastewater treatment systems, and the cost of the fuel cell was about dollars 2. Not to mention that urine would be a free and practically inexhaustible resource. To date, the device created is slightly larger than a car battery, but the researchers hope to reduce its size soon to make it portable.

    READ also: The electric generator that goes to urine invented by 4 girls

    How does it work? To charge the phone, the engineers grew i bacteria on carbon fiber anodes inside ceramic cylinders. As urine passes through the cylinders, the bacteria literally break down the sugars and other chemical compounds contained in the fluid (the urine ed), so as to produce a small separation of electrical charge. In concrete terms, it is as if the bacteria broke the chemical chains producing charged pieces.



    “The beauty of this fuel source is that we're not relying on the erratic nature of the wind or the sun. We are effectively reusing waste to create energy, " he said al Telegraph John Ieropoulos, engineer of the BRL. “One product on which we can be sure of an infinite supply is our own urine”.

    Considering that today in the world between people and animals about 38 billion liters of urine per day, the energy is guaranteed and above all it is practically unlimited.


    The hope of the researchers is that one day such a system can be used for supplying low-cost electricity to developing countries and not only. According to scientists, such technology could one day be installed in bathrooms for supply energy to household appliances.


    Francesca Mancuso

    READ also:

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    - Fuel: from pee the new fuel for rockets and spacecraft?

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