How Much Electricity Can Urine Provide?

Researchers have created pee-powered fuel cells that can light outdoor portable bathrooms. Learn how (and why) in this episode of BrainStuff. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Lauren Bogle bomb here. The lights in portable bathrooms can
now be powered with p a transformation that has far
reaching implications for sanitation and developing countries with limited electricity.
The development could also advance safety and refugee camps, where
a nightly walk to the bathroom can be dangerous in

(00:24):
the dark. Spanish researchers at the University of the West
of England have devised a way for urine and bacteria
to react and generate enough energy to light led tubes.
Researcher Irene Marino said in a press release. The technology
in the prototype is based on microbial fuel cells. Marino
and her colleagues detailed their findings in the journal Environmental Science,

(00:46):
Water Research and Technology. Basically, the microbial fuel cells act
like batteries with a positively charged anode and a negatively
charged cathode. When the microbial fuel cells are installed inside
a year urnal bacterial grow on the anode electrode. These
bacteria then begin to decompose the organic material in urine,

(01:07):
launching a metabolic process that releases protons and electrons. The
protons move across a semipermeable membrane from the anode to
the cathode and meet up with electrons traveling through an
external electrical circuit. A complex electrochemical process called an oxygen
reduction reaction in the cathode then completes the cycle and
while ah electricity from urine. The journal article presents the

(01:31):
results of two recent successful field tests. One of the
large scale tests included public urinal cubicles at Glastonbury Festival,
the UK's biggest music fest. The urnals were used by
thousands and generated enough electricity about three hundred milliwatts to
light the cubicle's interior led tubes. Another urinal field test
showed promising results on the University of the West of

(01:52):
England's campus. This prototype generated about seventy five milliwatts. The
researchers are now working with a nonprofit organization to test
the urinals at refugee camps and in public toilets currently
without lighting. A prototype with a design for female users
is also in the works. The hope is to light
toilets and possibly even the surrounding area in regions that

(02:13):
use communal toilets outside of homes, which in the dark
present safety concerns, and this isn't the only P technology
in the works. The company nature Commode, for example, is
exploring ways to recycle urine from public toilets into fast
acting fertilizers for farmers. The treated urine is high in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,
and other nutrients that plants can readily absorb. Today's episode

(02:41):
was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by Tyler Clang.
For more on this and lots of other P powered topics,
visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.