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  • Author Author: Catwell
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Lagos teens exhibit ingenuity and create urine-powered generator

Catwell

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Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin, and Bello Eniola, creators of the generator

 

There have been some ingenious inventions to come out of places you’d least expect, and Africa is no exception as Maker Faire Africa (Lagos, Nigeria) recently wrapped up their annual symposium for creative design in a multitude of areas. One of the more creative (ingenious really) inventions came from a group of teenage girls who created a generator that runs on hydrogen derived from urine. The generator, designed by Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin and Bello Eniola, works by pouring urine into an electric cell which breaks it down to its basic components of nitrogen, water and hydrogen. The separated hydrogen then gets passed through a water filter to purify the gas, which is then sent to a gas cylinder containing liquid borax that removes any water remaining in the hydrogen gas. The hydrogen is then sent to the generator that burns the fuel and can run for approximately 6 hours using just one liter of urine!

 

 

While the girl’s urine-powered generator is truly innovative (considering the simplicity of the generator not to mention the fact that fuel is hard to come by in some parts of Africa), using bodily waste for power isn’t anything new. Back in June of this year (2012) scientists from Nanyang Technological University (located in Singapore) developed their ‘No-Mix Vacuum Toilet’ that separates both liquid and solid waste. The liquid is sent to a refining facility that breaks down the urine into its base components and are used as agricultural fertilizers, while the solid waste is sent to bio-reactors that in turn break it down. As a result, methane is released and used as a power source that can take the place of natural gas (other natural gas?) used in stoves for cooking as well as turned into electricity.

 

 

While these methods haven’t been proven in a long-term sense (mechanical break-down due to generator degradation resulting from chemical reactions i.e.: hydrochloric acid from saltwater/urea electrolysis) they do open doors for research into how abundant waste resources can be transformed into energy.

 

 

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

  • They must be filtering the electrolytic urine first before separating the hydorgen then collecting enough pressureised Hydrogen to start the generator. The rate of hydrogen production has to be enough to keep it at a constant pressure. Certainly doable. Check out all the home made water running engines, including one of a V8 cylinder truck in the USA. You should be amazed how much we are taken for a ride by big oil companies just because we are sceptical and afraid to dream within the realms of Science.

  • in reply to Catwell

    There's something wrong with this story - 1 liter of pee does not contain the energy equivalent of a few liters of petrol (my guess at what it would take to run a generator for 6 hours). If you follow the Google trail you'll find that

    1) it's not clear *exactly* what was done and what was claimed and

    2) that electrical energy is input to the electrolysis cell

     

    Urine has been used for thousands of years for a variety of purposes but it doesn't contain any useful energy.

     

    Michael Kellett

  • in reply to DAB

    In this case, you have to admit, these wasted materials are not something we want to handle on a daily bases. But, perhaps this will head to something done on an industrial scale at treatment facilities, if there are any.

     

    C

  • As I have said before, reuse everything.

     

    People need to stop viewing materials as waste.  Everything has some value, some where.

     

    Open your eyes and think about all the things you  throw away and ask yourself, "What else could we do with this stuff?"

     

    Just a thought,

    DAB