In “Pee is for power: Your electrifying excretions”, Hazel Muir point out that we can use urine from pee to make hydrogen for use in fuel cells (issue 2774). This idea is begin by Gerardine Botte, a chemical engineer at Ohio University in Athens. She thinks urine is good choice for make hydrogen for use in fuel cells because it wants less energy to break down urea than energy that needed to split the water to make hydrogen and hydrogen that take from fossil fuels is difficult to store and distribute. Botte calculates that if she develop her electrodes be more effective, hydrogen will be produced from urine at a cost of less than $1 per kilogram. She says "An office building where 200 or 300 people work could produce about 2 kilowatts of power". Making hydrogen from pee idea being taken by Tao and his colleague Rong Lan, along with John Irvine from the University of St Andrews, also in the UK. Since 2007, this team is develop a fuel cell that can produce electricity directly from urine with no need voltage to break down urea but the details of the electrode are still secret.
I feel very excite when I read this article because people are urination every day so if we can use this idea in pubic, we will solve energy problem and environment problem because after we brake down urea and eliminate other contamination before make hydrogen, waste product from this procedure is water that we can use it again, so it is a way of recycle too. And a problem of heavy metal that leads from old battery will be decrease too.
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I usually read Muir's articles in New Scientist, but had missed this one. It's an interesting read, as Muir's articles usually are.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I'm not sure about the future of pee-power, I think it's a good thing that many different, even weird, ideas are being investigated. Who knows? One of the weird ideas might just turn out to provide an answer to some of our current problems.
I think sometime weird ideas are working well; such as, when Walkman was built, when someone (I forgot his name, sorry) tried to transmit radio wave across the world, or when Bill Gate found the Microsoft. Maybe in next ten years, electrical production will depend on our pee.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it is a very interesting research. It not only solves our energy crisis in the future, but it also helps our environment. I think that it is not a strange idea because many people use their poo or from their animal in farm.
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