In the not so distance future, if you get lost and need energy (electricity), just PEE !!!

As of very recently, a device that converts urine into electricity debuted at the Glastonbury Festival. The way it was advertised was by placing information screens of the musical event that would be fed with the waste of two public toilets. The director of the Bristol Biotechnology Center who created this technology says that it aims to generate energy at low cost and with little infrastructure.

Researchers at a British university have created a device that turns urine into electricity in search of meeting the challenge of producing energy at low cost, cleanly, renewable and with little infrastructure.

The technology, which was developed at the Bristol Biotechnology Center in southwest England, consists of a series of cylinders filled with electroactive microorganisms that feed from the wastewater to create electrons that are then converted into electricity and stored in batteries ready for use.

While it is not the first time that science seeks to transform human waste into energy through bacteria that does that naturally, the innovative thing about this project is that it made the so-called Microbial Fuel Cells, the system that allows you to take advantage of that process.

The director says that the research began 15 years ago, when they began to explore different ways of developing energy-independent robots. Then they started working with the Microbial Fuel Cells that successfully propelled the family of small robots created.

Thus, was born the project called "Pee Power," which according to the scientist "has a very high potential since it can be used to generate electricity in remote places, treat wastewater, produce disinfectant solutions and kill Pathogenic organisms".

The pragmatism and possibilities of the device caught the attention of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, created by one of the parents of Microsoft and his wife, who decided to finance its development and what will be its test in Uganda, the first outside the United Kingdom.

The test will be in a boarding school, providing lighting in one of the blocks of toilets that currently has no electricity, said the professor of Bioenergy and Self-Sustainable Systems.

But before crossing the continent, the technology was tested at the Glastonbury Festival, one of the most important in the British music scene and until June 26 will see the stages of Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran, among other artists.

There were two urinals of different sizes and that serve a different purpose, to see how well they perform outside the laboratory and with a large number of visitors - expect more than a thousand liters of urine per day.

The idea is to generate enough energy for part of the lighting, the cell phone chargers installed in areas of the festival and feed the electronic screens.

A single microbial fuel cell fed with two liters of urine can generate between 30 and 40 milliwatts of energy, enough to slowly charge a cell phone or light a chemical bath for example.

While the figure is not comparable with other alternatives such as solar panels, the great advantage is that the technology can be very cheap in its production, installation and use by taking advantage of a renewable waste that does not produce polluting gases.

The cost is now higher than it should be simply because the technology is still within the research center within the University. If it begins to produce in mass, then the cost will be low.

Experts demonstrated that in addition to producing energy, electroactive microorganisms that feed on urine and wastewater can be used to attack and destroy Salmonella, a potentially deadly pathogen.

In this way, it is anticipated that this technology can also be used in areas that lack sanitation and treatment to help clean the waste water and effluents.

References:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/

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