Urine-powered cellphones

By Isaac Kim

Your new cell-phone charger

British scientists successfully charged a cellphone with urine, generating enough energy to send text messages and surf the Internet, Joongang Ilbo reported on July 16.

The scientists of Bristol Robotics Laboratory from a joint collaboration between University of the West of England and University of Bristol shared their breakthrough in the Royal Society of Chemistry Journal of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP).

The research staff explained they have created microbial fuel cells (MFC) which uses urine bacteria to produce electricity.

Dr. Ioannis Ieropoulos, lead author of the thesis, stated, “No one has harnessed power from urine to do this so it's an exciting discovery.”

He also emphasized, “The beauty of this fuel source is that we are not relying on the erratic nature of the wind or the sun - we are actually re-using waste to create energy.”

“One product that we can be sure of an unending supply is our own urine.”

Dr. Ieropoulos believes the MFCs will someday generate enough energy to power car batteries and other electrical devices.

“Our aim is to develop a mobile urine-powered MFC generator,” he stated.

“So far the microbial fuel power stack that we have developed generates enough power to enable SMS messaging, web browsing and to make a brief phone call,” he said. “The concept has been tested and it works. It’s now for us to develop and refine the process so that we can develop MFCs to fully charge a battery.”