Recycling Urine to Power Batteries
Wednesday, July 9, 2014 - 12:52:36
A team of researchers in the UK is working to develop a novel and potentially groundbreaking technology that will allow them to recycle urine in order to power batteries, according to the Huffington Post.
The work is taking place at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, and the idea is that urine produced by humans can be used to create fuel cells, within which microscopic organism generate energy as they break down the bodily waste.
This recycling process is doubly effective because it not only means that clean green energy can be created to help power the devices of the future, but also that the sanitation issues caused by urine are addressed. When it used within the batteries, it is actually cleaned.
At the moment, there is still a long way to go before this technology is practically applicable in the commercial sense, because the researchers have only managed to produce a battery that can charge a mobile phone in a full 24 hours. And the recycling station required to produce this amount of energy is significant.
But the point is not immediately to find a way to make the technology profitable, but to look at ways that it can be rolled out to help in many different parts of the world. For example, in isolated areas of developing nations where mains power may not be easily accessible, being able to use urine to charge batteries would be a boon.
Hopefully, the work done in Bristol will lead to major developments further down the line, with batteries becoming all the more important in an age when electric cars are finally starting to hit the mainstream. Companies such as Tesla in the US are turning the concept of green motoring into something sustainable and stylish, so perhaps we are only a few years away from a urine-powered family car?
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