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Urine-powered generator unveiled at international exhibition

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 5:01 pm
by Sabre
Yahoo!

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Four African girls have created a generator that produces electricity for six hours using a single liter of urine as fuel.
The generator was unveiled at last week's Maker Faire in Lagos, Nigeria, by the four teens Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, and Faleke Oluwatoyin, all age 14, and Bello Eniola, 15.
So how exactly does the urine-powered generator work?
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.
And as for delivering the fuel itself? Well, we'll leave that up to the consumer.
The Maker Faire is a popular event across the African continent, drawing thousands of participants who travel to Lagos to show their inventions and other practical creations.
As the Next Web describes it, the Maker Faire is intended to highlight creations "that solve immediate challenges and problems, and then works to support and propagate them. Put another way, this isn't just a bunch of rich people talking about how their apps are going to change the world."
Pretty awesome :)

Re: Urine-powered generator unveiled at international exhibi

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:33 am
by drwrx
I like the last line in the write-up:
"Along the whole way there are one-way valves for security, but let’s be honest that this is something of an explosive device…"

Re: Urine-powered generator unveiled at international exhibi

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 5:34 pm
by zaxrex
And I thought they were going to use white phosphorous from the urine.
Talk about bomb making material.

Re: Urine-powered generator unveiled at international exhibi

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:22 am
by drwrx
zaxrex wrote:And I thought they were going to use white phosphorous from the urine.
Talk about bomb making material.
How much urine/time would be required to extract enough white phosphorus to make a bomb?
A herd of cattle and several years?

Re: Urine-powered generator unveiled at international exhibi

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:16 pm
by complacent
i am always humbled by the accomplishments and innovation of the people who need help the most. very, very impressive.