Scientists at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, have demonstrated that a commercially available mobile phone can be charged and powered with urine.
The availability of energy for communication when in remote areas can be a big problem. If you could charge your phone with your own readily available urine, the worry of running out of phone battery in a difficult situation is solved. This research also opens up lots of possibilities for the utilisation of waste for useful energy. The authors of this research told UWE News that they think their technology could be installed into domestic bathrooms to harness the urine and produce sufficient electricity to power showers, lighting or razors as well as mobile phones.
Microbial Fuel Cells use live microorganisms to turn organic matter into electricity. The group created a membrane-less microbial fuel cell, which was made out of ceramic material and used carbon-based electrodes.
Read the story in UWE Bristol News here…
Find out more about how this amazing microbial fuel cell works in the article recently published in PCCP:
Waste to Real Energy: the first MFC powered mobile phone
Ioannis Ieropoulos, Pablo Ledezma, Andrew Stinchcombe, George Papaharalabos, Chris Melhuish and John Greenman
DOI: 10.1039/C3CP52889H
