Sunday's Tale: a post from the past.
This
story comes from Maker Faire Africa 2012, in Lagos. This 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."
Possibly
one of the more unexpected products at Faire is a urine powered
generator, created by four young students. The girls are Duro-Aina
Adebola (14), Akindele Abiola (14), Faleke Oluwatoyin (14) and Bello
Eniola (15).
It
produces electricity for six hours using a single liter of urine as
fuel.
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.
Along
the whole way there are one-way valves for security, but let’s be
honest that this is something of an explosive device…
Note:
This is an experiment more than a real new tool for electricity
generation. The net power output is negative due to the energy needed
to get the hydrogen from the urine through electrolysis. These
issues, coupled with the complexities of storing hydrogen safely,
mean the generator may not be an immediately marketable prospect, but
it demonstrates the potential for using the abundant resource that is
urine to create valuable products.
Photo
credit Maker Fair Africa
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