Finally a use for urine. Before you dismiss this as disgusting, just think for a moment about the facts. Individuals produce 1-2 litres a day, collectively, people produce over 10 billion litres of urine every day- not to mention animals. To treat urine in our water supply is very energy intensive. Plus, there's a lot of it to go around ;)
Shanwen Tao, Rong Lan and John Irvine have come up with a use for urine- convert it to energy. The team have been developing a fuel cell that can produce electricity directly from urine. The urine (more specifically urea) is a great alternative to hydrogen or methanol, the substances currently used to generate energy in fuel cells.
Watch this space- urine could be the renewable material of choice for the future.
(Spotted on Gizmodo)
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