Would you like to solve your power every time you use the toilet in your home?
That is the future posed by the inventors of a new battery powered by urine and generating cheap electricity.
A scientist at the University of Bath in the UK, together with the Queen Mary University of London and Robotics Laboratory Bristol, have failed to resolve the two traditional obstacles battery microbial fuel: its high cost and low generation energy.
The battery uses natural biological processes to transform organic matter, in this case, urine, into electricity.
The battery is compact, more powerful than previous ones and their low cost have a positive impact on the developing world, researchers say.
More power
Supplies of fossil fuels in the world are being depleted. Also, due to the contaminant factor, there is growing pressure to develop new energy sources.
Bioenergy is a microbial solution, and the batteries can produce.
"Microbial batteries have a real potential to produce renewable bioenergy waste such as urine," said Dr. Mirella Di Lorenzo, the University of Bath in England.
However, one of the problems of microbial batteries is that they can be very expensive to manufacture.
The electrodes are usually made profitable but the cathode materials often contain platinum -a very costly- element to accelerate the reactions that generate electricity.
Also, these batteries produce much less energy than other methods of bioenergy production.
The redesigned microbial not use expensive battery cathode materials: is made instead of carbon cloth and titanium wire.
To accelerate the reaction and create more power, uses a catalyst made of glucose and albumin, a protein found in egg white.
"Smart Basins"
Doubling the length of the electrodes 4 to 8 millimeters and three batteries placed one above the other, they could increase tenfold power generation.
"We are talking about small amounts of energy generated by just a few drops of urine," said Di Lorenzo. "They are still very early stages, but we are very excited."
The development could revolutionize the production of microbial battery power and become a great source of energy for developing countries, particularly in poor rural areas.
"We envision the creation of 'smart sinks' for generating electricity," said the scientist. "The toilets would be installed with a device that would convert waste to energy directly through the system of microbial batteries."
As are concentrating solely on using cheap materials, its application in developing countries is one of the main objectives.
"Not only will improve access to more energy but also help solve health problems, " concluded Dr. Mirella Di Lorenzo.
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