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A URINE POWERED GENERATOR
Possibly one of the more unexpected products at Maker Faire Africa this year in Lagos is a urine powered generator, created by four girls. The girls are Duro-Aina Adebola (14), Akindele Abiola (14), Faleke Oluwatoyin (14) and Bello Eniola (15).
1 Liter of urine gives you 6 hours of electricity.
The system works like this:
But NBC news also reported it hence I am asking is it possible if yes why no one ventured in this? African girls’ pee-powered generator raises questions - NBC News
A urine-powered generator presented by a group of school-age girls at an innovation fair in Africa is generating buzz as a world-changing breakthrough, but a reality-check with the expert who invented the contraption at the heart of the technology might flush those expectations down the drain.
The contraption in question is an electrolytic cell that converts urea — the main compound in urine besides water — into nitrogen, water and hydrogen.
“What these kids are doing is taking urea electrolysis and making hydrogen and then using that hydrogen to make electricity,” Gerardine Botte, a chemical engineer at Ohio University who invented the urea electrolysis process, told NBC News when asked to comment on the generator.
According to information provided on the Maker Faire Africa website about the pee-powered system, one liter of urine provides six hours of electricity, though the site lacks details on how many watts are generated or what that electricity could power for six hours: an iPod or a neighborhood?
Another concern is the implication that the students get more energy out of the urine than they use to prepare it in the first place. That isn't true, according to Botte.
“It is a high school project, so don’t take it [so seriously],” Botte said, adding that the student's work is "empowering" and suggested they work with an engineer to understand the technology and its appropriate applications.
For Botte, the technology is most practical as a way to make the wastewater treatment process more energy efficient.
All wastewater treatment plants consume energy, she explained. Since urea is already being collected by such facilities, Botte says it makes sense to extract hydrogen from it. This in turn can be used to generate electricity, thus reducing the amount of outside energy required to run the wastewater treatment process.
“You will never get more energy out than you put in because you are treating urea … but it is a unique and elegant way to treat urine waste, which will allow you to co-generate electricity,” she said.
INVERTERS AND POWER BACKUP
There are some pretty serious power issues in Lagos. Power outages happen multiple times per day all over the city, so everyone has a backup generator if they can afford one. What do you do if you can’t afford a generator, and/or can’t afford even a second of lost power (for your desktop computer, etc)?
Salami Olupeni Samuel (Sam) created Sam Powersystems, a company that uses locally sourced components to create power inverters which connect to car batteries for automatic backup power. Sam fabricates a 1.5kva power inverter from materials bought from local suppliers and markets.
The people who buy Sam’s equipment generally don’t have a generator, or if they do they use this so that they don’t have to power it up quite as much during short outages. You won’t need a UPS as the battery serves this purpose, providing automatic failover with an internal switch in the power inverter if your power fails. Primary uses of the system include, computers, lights, fans, TV and decoder.
If you want to buy one, the power inverter costs 40k Naira ($250), and the battery is 50k Naira ($300).
A URINE POWERED GENERATOR
Possibly one of the more unexpected products at Maker Faire Africa this year in Lagos is a urine powered generator, created by four girls. The girls are Duro-Aina Adebola (14), Akindele Abiola (14), Faleke Oluwatoyin (14) and Bello Eniola (15).
1 Liter of urine gives you 6 hours of electricity.
The system works like this:
- Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.
- The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.
- The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.
- This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.
But NBC news also reported it hence I am asking is it possible if yes why no one ventured in this? African girls’ pee-powered generator raises questions - NBC News
A urine-powered generator presented by a group of school-age girls at an innovation fair in Africa is generating buzz as a world-changing breakthrough, but a reality-check with the expert who invented the contraption at the heart of the technology might flush those expectations down the drain.
The contraption in question is an electrolytic cell that converts urea — the main compound in urine besides water — into nitrogen, water and hydrogen.
“What these kids are doing is taking urea electrolysis and making hydrogen and then using that hydrogen to make electricity,” Gerardine Botte, a chemical engineer at Ohio University who invented the urea electrolysis process, told NBC News when asked to comment on the generator.
According to information provided on the Maker Faire Africa website about the pee-powered system, one liter of urine provides six hours of electricity, though the site lacks details on how many watts are generated or what that electricity could power for six hours: an iPod or a neighborhood?
Another concern is the implication that the students get more energy out of the urine than they use to prepare it in the first place. That isn't true, according to Botte.
“It is a high school project, so don’t take it [so seriously],” Botte said, adding that the student's work is "empowering" and suggested they work with an engineer to understand the technology and its appropriate applications.
For Botte, the technology is most practical as a way to make the wastewater treatment process more energy efficient.
All wastewater treatment plants consume energy, she explained. Since urea is already being collected by such facilities, Botte says it makes sense to extract hydrogen from it. This in turn can be used to generate electricity, thus reducing the amount of outside energy required to run the wastewater treatment process.
“You will never get more energy out than you put in because you are treating urea … but it is a unique and elegant way to treat urine waste, which will allow you to co-generate electricity,” she said.
INVERTERS AND POWER BACKUP
There are some pretty serious power issues in Lagos. Power outages happen multiple times per day all over the city, so everyone has a backup generator if they can afford one. What do you do if you can’t afford a generator, and/or can’t afford even a second of lost power (for your desktop computer, etc)?
Salami Olupeni Samuel (Sam) created Sam Powersystems, a company that uses locally sourced components to create power inverters which connect to car batteries for automatic backup power. Sam fabricates a 1.5kva power inverter from materials bought from local suppliers and markets.
The people who buy Sam’s equipment generally don’t have a generator, or if they do they use this so that they don’t have to power it up quite as much during short outages. You won’t need a UPS as the battery serves this purpose, providing automatic failover with an internal switch in the power inverter if your power fails. Primary uses of the system include, computers, lights, fans, TV and decoder.
If you want to buy one, the power inverter costs 40k Naira ($250), and the battery is 50k Naira ($300).
