On the University of the West of England's campus in Bristol stands a curious structure. It is in fact a revolutionary urinal which uses urine to generate electricity and all staff and students are being encouraged to use it.
Microbial fuel cell (MFC) stacks in the urinal convert urine into power when microbes begin to feed on the urine for growth. The toilet, developed by the University alongside Oxfam, has been developed as a means of lighting cubicles in refugee camps, where people are in danger in dark toilet cubicles from assault.
Whilst the toilet was developed for a specific purpose, the technology could potentially be of use in a wider context, such as public toilets. An estimated 6.4tn litres of urine is produced by humans across the World every year - all of which could be used to make power using this urinal.
Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, director of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre and research lead on the project, said, "The MFC is in effect a system which taps a portion of that biochemical energy used for microbial growth, and converts that directly into electricity - what we are calling urine-tricity or pee power. This technology is about as green as it gets, as we do not need to utilise fossil fuels and we are effectively using a waste product that will be in plentiful supply.”
