Flat battery? Urine luck


  • TECH
  • Thursday, 21 Apr 2016

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr Mirella Di Lorenzo ©University of Bath

A group of researchers at the University of Bath, in Great Britain have developed a urine-powered miniature fuel cell that's already capable of recharging a smartphone. 

The device is just 25 square millimetres and uses a carbon catalyst created from the protein commonly found in an egg white – in other words, biomass. The urine passes through it and thanks to the ‘electric' bacteria present in the substance, electricity is generated that can be sent to a battery for storage or used to directly power an electrical device. 

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