In Nigeria, a few schoolgirls set up a contraption that extracts energy from urine. Evidently, a liter of piss can keep the lights on for six hours. I had no idea that pee had so much juice, so to speak, but hey, think of the potential.
Four African girls have created a generator that produces electricity for six hours using a single liter of urine as fuel.
The generator was unveiled at last week’s Maker Faire in Lagos, Nigeria, by the four teens Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, and Faleke Oluwatoyin, all age 14, and Bello Eniola, 15.
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.
And as for delivering the fuel itself? Well, we’ll leave that up to the consumer.
With just a couple sixpacks, I could keep the lights on all week. Entire cities could be powered by the effluent of one NFL game. If it actually worked, it would be a great leap forward for mankind.
Of course, it probably doesn’t. But it’s the thought that counts, right?
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
If I could get money every time I heard a girl trying to be somewhat scientific, I’d be a millionaire by now.
When females do achieve something like this the right thing to do is to describe the invention or discovery, give a bio of the person/s who accomplished it, and then move on.
No gushing paragraphs on females overcoming “oppression” and the like because doing so implies that females have the deck stacked against them and that without help, coincidence, or sheer luck they can do nothing.
Treating females the same as men will actually make their deeds more believable and even acceptable — as well as doing preciisely what feminists claim to have wanted: take them as equals.
Thus the headline for this in all media should be “New, Inexpensive Generator Invented”.
So how much power do you get out of a litre of piss?
How many centuries does it take to repay the energy required to build and maintain the thing?
Probably the key question is, however;
How much money is someone looking to scam out of converting this ‘prototype for saving the world’ into a manufacturable product (which will clearly never actually happen – but in the meantime ker-ching!)
My bullshit meter is going off here. How much power does the electrolysis require?
Yeah, and there’s an African space program too.
I suppose it might work, but:
How is the hydrogen separated? If its just electrolyzed out, then rofl.
How is the moisture removed from the borax?
Urine is 95% water so the energy content is well “piss poor”.
However speaking of girl power, breast milk has an energy density of 80 watt hours per 100 milliliters. That’s double the amount compared to lithium ion batteries believe it or not.
So if you wanted to collect the most energy out of a woman you’d milk her tits and that’s a scientific fact.
Why do I feel so embarrassed ?
That’s kind of gross and oddly amusing that a bunch of girls thought of this idea.
It sounds like a frat boy (or 9 year old boy’s) imagination at work. Seriously.
It’s kinda cool
Like you said, if it works.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha
I had several comments that came to mind I wanted to write.
Then I thought better of it. LMAO
Dude,
The girls did a good job, but no need to inadvertently encourage the current “Girls can do anything” climate with this sort of post.
After all MEN invented the technology they copied and hobbled together several years ago.
Check these links out –
http://www.livescience.com/384-power-pee-runs-battery.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0818_050818_urinebattery.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31805166/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/forget-gas-batteries-pee-new-power-source/#.UKJPqIZNJBk
And given the grossly slanted Femeducation and Mancession I’d prefer you pushed something encouraging boy’s/men’s way instead like this for example -
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2011/2011-05-13-092.html
Pissing into an electrolytic cell doesn’t mean they invented the technology…
Now that is good news, given how wymen piss and moan.
I don’t see any way there could be a net energy gain from this.
In fact, it sounds quite similar to the BS idea in the Matrix movies, where people are used as batteries. It’s BS because a human consumes more energy than he produces.
In order for “urine power” to work, the energy derived from the urine would have to exceed the amount of energy consumed by the human during production of the urine in the first place, not to mention any energy required by the process itself (including production of the electrolytic cells, production of the borax, etc.).
The key element in power production is that humans have to put less energy into the system than we get out of it, otherwise it’s pointless.
What’s really happening here is some journalists are failing to due their jobs properly, and this failure is largely related to their desire to see non-white females accomplish something significant in the world. “Look what these African girls did! Aren’t they awesome? And doesn’t this conclusively prove our various liberal ideals?!??! And wouldn’t it be racist to subject their claims to anything like a proper critical examination??!!” In other words, they are hoping that politically correct fervor and piety will somehow lead to energy creation. It also a really a sad commentary on the current state of journalism.
You can do the same (or similar) with lemon juice. This is not a new idea, but I am surprised no one had thought to use urine until now. You can use any acidic liquid.
Borax. $3.00/lb on Ebay, dry. How often does it get changed?
And does it have to be virgins’ wee?
Not really. What they did essentially was make a battery for storing energy extracted from urine. The article is really misleading—probably written by someone who has no clue what the girls actually did.
And, no, it probably couldn’t power a TV or something like that for six hours. I’m guessing it just carries a charge for that long–no idea how strong. But possibly enough to power small tools and when you live on less than a dollar a day, something like this may have interesting applications.
A few enterprising schoolgirls put together an interesting science project—no need to be so patronizing.
Not buying it.
Not only does it not work,even if it did there’s no way some tween fems invented it.
This technique was invented in the US about three years ago.
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/news/2009/july/02070902.asp
Kinda like asking people to piss on their project. Literally.
It turns out that the technique was invented by a woman, though. And by her CV, she
Is a real scientist, too. See her resume at http://www.ohio.edu/ceer/board/botte.cfm
So let me get this straight. Four black african teenage girls solve simultaneously the world’s energy crisis and human waste disposal crisis? Possible, but somehow I doubt it – too much of a political correctoid’s wet dream.
“Urine powered generator is full of sh…” Read all about it!
The school itself probably directed this thing just like “American” high schools produce worthless “projects” whether it is boys or girls involved…This is so that everyone has to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get an actual education after taxpayer-funded “high school” is over.
Where’s AfOR when we need him? I miss his profanity-laden tirades. He’d have a field day with this one. I’ll do my best to fill his shoes.
Nigerians are once again showcasing their primary export to the gullible West. Grade A bullshit. With just the right dash of feminism (Nigerian gurrrls) for flavor.
Here’s a picture of the amazing invention. In this picture, note the facial expressions of the girls, particularly the one on the left. They are embarrassed. They have no idea what any of this crap is. Somewhere behind the scenes there is an enterprising male Nigerian “entrepreneur”.
Just for a start, the hydrogen in urine is in the WATER, not in the urea and other waste products dissolved in it. So the “urine” part of the invention is a Nigerian innovation, as it makes the whole thing just a little more believable to ignorant Westerners.
Yes, you can get hydrogen from water, but the (electrical) energy used for electrolysis will be greater than the energy returned when the resulting hydrogen is oxidized (burned). Thermodynamics and all that.
I could evaluate this “invention” component by component but won’t bore you with that. Cut to the chase. Here’s how the scam works. The gas cylinder starts out with gas in it. Surprise! Probably propane. With which you can run the generator. Hopefully long enough to get some ignorant Western NGO to write a big fat check for further development of the “invention.”
The efforts of the young women are laudable, though one suspects they got a little help with their “invention”. The annoyance will be the blaring fanfare from the femedia over this science-fare project claiming evidence of women’s contribution to technology. They will take the gal’s commendable work and make a laughing stock out of it. No doubt though the girls will get an all-expenses trip to Oprah-ville where at least 2 of them will jump ship and stay here.
It’s been done before :
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/22076821/29969631/name/urine+power.pdf
Years ago I worked on a project to produce hydrogen from human waste as a potential energy source for spacecraft and moon bases.
If girls or women happen upon brilliance in innovation and discovery, there’s nothing wrong with that. They should be encouraged if they show interest and aptitude in science. What should NOT be happening is the glorification of “grrl power” at the expense of boys and the false premise that women are STILL not leaders in science and technology because of gender bias and oppression. Schools are tripping over themselves to get more girls interested in STEM, while ignoring boys who might be. Yet boys still reign supreme in science fairs across the country despite forced gender inclusivity.
They’re struggling at great expense, to PROVE girls are just as capable in STEM as boys – – and sadly shattering this “glass ceiling” has yet to pan out – – while so many boys are more discouraged than ever. Boys must be so confused by being made to help the girls (their competitors) so much – – prop them up, give them credit for showing up.
How many more generations will it take before we admit, boys are simply better at stuff than girls?
Never again tell me about those piss poor Nigerian guuurlz.
Wait till 2013 when Obama delivers on his promise to inflict Title IX on our engineering schools.
The least they could do would be to start adding protections for our men of industry from predatory office females like Mrs. Shagwell.
This sounds suspiciously similar to jenkem.
As ridiculous as this story is, it’s another effective brick in the social engineering wall. Hundreds of rewrites of the original story, echoing round the web, being read by ignorant women and men who will take it at face value. That Nigerian female teens have beaten the pathetic white man at his own game.
Like this one: You’re in for a shock at genius teens’ pee-powered generator.
Genius teens! LOL.
I did also find this story: Brad And Angie Go To Meet The African Pee Generator Girls.
It’s fiction, but the author grasps the essence of the “invention.”
For your further entertainment.
Another Nigerian invention. The helicopter!
The Ugandan space program .
The Kenyan aerospace industry.
This one actually flies! But it’s Chinese. Oh well.
Wait till 2013 when Obama delivers on his promise to inflict Title IX on our engineering schools.
His next social directive will involve racial inequality.
His remedy — short of new affirmative-action legislation — is to sue financial companies, schools and employers based on “disparate impact” complaints — a stealthy way to achieve racial preferences.
Under this broad interpretation of civil-rights law, virtually any organization can be held liable for race bias if it maintains a policy that negatively impacts one racial group more than another — even if it has no racist motive and applies the policy evenly across all groups. Minorities will be expected to have proportional representation throughout all levels of a company or small business employing more than 50 workers.
Next on the list will be some sort of Equal Pay order (currently under closure in the Senate), to pay back single women for their votes. This will require access to payroll information, which will be easy enough to obtain since they’ll already have a list of employees by race.
We are slowly becoming Sweden.
The white male needs to start prepping.
His day is done in America.
For your further entertainment
How dare anyone imply that inferior sub-human jungle savages can even remotely have some ingenuity.
You’re a smart guy and I assume we’d get along well. I respect the desire to innovate of the inventors to which I linked. The amusing part is that they totally miss the point. What they’re doing is sort of cargo cult invention, making something that looks like the real thing but is otherwise deficient in every possible respect. That’s funny.
Didn’t any of you make a science project where you powered a flashlight bulb with a potato? Any acid can work to make electons flow. Oxidation reduction reactions in chemistry.
Bollocks. She’s a fake scientist with a real degree from a crappy university.
You’re a woman so I don’t expect you to understand. The point is that producing hydrogen by electrolysis will always be NET ENERGY NEGATIVE. It’s an immutable physical law of the fucking universe. If it wasn’t, building a perpetual motion machine would be a snap.
The fact that this bimbo fake scientist is using urea as an electrolyte is just farking dumb. It’s not an innovation or invention in any shape or form. She’d be better off throwing table salt into the water.
In fact, from the very paper you cited:
In other words, Bruce Logan, a man who actually knows what he’s talking about, points out an immediately obvious fatal flaw in the process. The flaw is so farking obvious that Mr. Logan feels secure in pointing it out EVEN THOUGH criticizing a female “scientist’s” work in this way can be a career-ending move. Bottom line, the men are just humoring this woman with her urea cell.
Logan then intelligently covers his ass with more PC gobbledygook.
God help us all as Western women and their enablers replace science with scienciness.
“Another Nigerian invention. The helicopter!”
Given his resources, I’m impressed.
And let’s not be too critical about 3rd world technology; when shit hits the fan like Keyster implies, we will all be making gunpowder from urine.
@Charles Martel -
You’re wrong about a couple of things.
1) The hydrogen sourced by this method comes from the UREA, requiring roughly one third the energy input to release hydrogen than the energy required to release hydrogen from water = 70% “cheaper” hydrogen in energy terms.
“Urine’s major constituent is urea, which incorporates four hydrogen atoms per molecule – importantly, less tightly bonded than the hydrogen atoms in water molecules. Botte used electrolysis to break the molecule apart, developing an inexpensive new nickel-based electrode to selectively and efficiently oxidise the urea. To break the molecule down, a voltage of 0.37V needs to be applied across the cell – much less than the 1.23V needed to split water. ”
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/news/2009/july/02070902.asp
2) This effectively extracts potential energy remaining in hydrated organic nitrogenous waste CO(NH2)2 that would otherwise be lost at the end of the food chain – through a process of catalysed oxidation (a net exothermic process).
The process has a modest net energy yield:
Urea electrolysis uses 37.5Wh/g of hydrogen gas produced, which is 135kJ/g.
Hydrogen gas has a specific energy of 142kJ/g – a net yield of 7kJ/g.
The original energy INPUT into the food chain in the first place comes from photosynthesis by plants / algae, which energy was stored as various biomolecules (proteins, carbohydrates, fats etc.) which then got into the food chain by being eaten i.e. the same route that energy was originally stored in what later became fossil fuels.
However!
The net energy yield is low enough that it may be lost through inefficiencies in conversion, if inefficiency is very poor there may even be a net energy loss.
So, PRACTICALLY this is NOT much of a GENERATOR, however what it is in the context of many parts of Africa is:
a) A cheap and effective fuel STORAGE device (e.g. a way of storing wind or solar generated electric in H2 form for use generating electric at night / in calm conditions)
b) a cheap and effective form of TREATING WASTE to make it less nitrogenous which, again in many contexts, makes it less toxic.
^Both a) and b) are useful, but not the “Eureka!” that headlines suggest.
This is a complete & utter scam … except this time with a feminist twist …
This is basic electrolysis …
Water placed electrodes, split the water into hydrogen & oxygen …
Also guess what the electrolytic cell is? …. its a fancy name for a BATTERY
as the posters above pointed out, EVEN WITH URINE, splitting hydrogens on a cellular level is NOTORIOUSLY INEFFICENT …
There are efficient ways of splitting hydrogen with catalysts, ie cheap paladium alternatives, good freaking luck getting them in africa…
Lmao you guys fell for yet another freaking nigerian scam….
If i didnt know any better I swear this was april fools lol …
Yes you can get stuff like bio methane gas, but splitting hydrogen atoms using urine with a battery is a pure scam …
Btw NASA HAS ALREADY BUILT something similar, but theirs uses solar cells & highly efficient micro-bial fuel cells powered by not just urine but also faeces …
Oh yes also NASA doesnt employ nigerians, & their highly efficient waste generating system is …. built by men
Lmao at all the morons who fell for this …
Seriously Price, dont create posts using your spam inbox …
Maybe it won’t work all that well but its a start at thinking things through, something Africa, nay the world has in short supply. so good for these girls.
@The First Joe
Looks like I was too hard on Dr. Botte.
Well then. What do we have? A method of power generation (urea electrolysis) that has a single chemical process that is theoretically slightly net energy positive, but in practice is:
(1) significantly net energy negative due to the low thermal efficiencies of power generating equipment;
(2) difficult to operate reliably due to the chemical instability of urea and to the accumulation of various salts and other crap in the electrolytic cell;
(3) inherently difficult to scale because large generators will require grid power therefore making the power generator a power consumer. LOL.
So we have a power generating technology that (1) is actually a net power user unless the power input is “free” – i.e solar, (2) becomes unserviceable very quickly and (3) can only be built on a very small scale. That would be all the world’s power problems solved then, eh?
As to the “waste treatment.” PC baloney. Far from being toxic, urine is a magnificent fertilizer due to the high nitrogen content of urea. Best thing to do with all that surplus urine is put it on your tomato plants.
Next thing you know these Nigerian girls will develop a test that can detect all groups of HIV in the blood (the current tests cannot detect Group O HIV). This is why Cameroonians, Central Africans, Chadians, Congolese from the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guineans, Gabonese, Nigeriens, and Nigerians who have lived in these eight countries since 1977, their sex partners since 1977, and anyone who has spent too long in their countries or who has received a blood transfusion in any of these countries cannot donate blood in the USA. In defense of immigrants from these countries to the USA, they do not view blood donation as a right, unlike some MSMs.
Matt, you’re not getting it. These girls haven’t invented anything. Their experimental set-up is a rig that anyone with a high school physics textbook could put together.
Furthermore, their process does not work. Does. Not. Work. This is just one more Nigerian 401, with visual aids. They have the solution to all the world’s energy problems. All you have to do is send a check for $5,000 and they’ll release your funds, er, the technology.
They’re running a scam on the scientifically illiterate. Like you. Don’t feel bad. Americans buy thousands of HHO generators. Same idea. They don’t work either.
The subplot is the social engineering aspect of all this. Nigerian teenage girls outsmart dumb ol’ YT.
Charles,
From the perspective of these Nigerian school girls, I doubt it’s anything as nefarious or intentional as your claim. Remember, we have a picture and WESTERN MSM labels wrapped around it. For all we know, this was a classroom project to demonstrate how it works akin to the similar demonstrations we all had in school with lemons and potatoes.
These girls took an interest and participated in this “discovery” to whatever degree they did and should not be denigrated or discouraged. That would be akin to your kid learning the potato power battery and demonstrating it to his parents only to have them laugh and roll their eyes. That’s fundamentally anti-education and none of us would (hopefully) do such a thing. So why do it to these girls? Because of our culture war with man-hating feminists? Why turn innocents into collateral damage?
We are right to criticize the PC-feminist revisionism being promoted in the MSM as “Girl pees in a battery cell: saves the world” BUT, those school girls SHOULD be supported and encouraged to go to the next level: conservation of energy, scalability, (and those other rules of energy I don’t know the names of) etc etc. IOW, separate out the feminist BS, but keep the education and participation that these kids are benefiting from. After all, we’re not the goddamned Taliban.
Perhaps so. Just a run-of-the-mill high school project. Which is being reported around the world just like every other run-of-the-mill high school project.
They’re claiming they’re generating electricity using urine as fuel. This is a totally false claim. There are two ways their experimental setup could run their generator. (1) Fuel (e.g. propane) in the gas tank, or (2) they’re generating HHO in their electrolytic cell which would require a continuous energy input via electrical connections to the cell that is greater than the electrical output of the generator.
I’ll stick with scam if you don’t mind. Though one that probably received more attention than intended.
Even if it doesn’t work, these girls already produced more real world value than 95% of the female workforce in the U.S.
This is hilarious, these women deliberately released a press statement stating energy generated using urIne
Then tried to hide the process using fancy terms like electolytic cells
Feminist retards fell for it even flying out journalists to film the scam…
Then the girls plugged their world saving energy generator, into a wall socket…
Hho generators do work btw, but their used as a conversion medium
Specifically as hho gas is more compustible then electricity making them ideal & cheaper then gas with the right catalysts & scaled correctly, hho generators are cheaper then buying petrol
This is no new idea they have been doing this with salt water forever now . People in my neighborhood have these on their cars to save gas .
Its nothing new . well unless you’re a Girls .
Got to give them a place in History somewhere .
Lets see , Headlines read
Green energy saves the world .Thanks to for little African Girls ,” Girls rule”
Things Girls will have invented after revisionist history ,
Cars , boats , books , electricity , Greese , water , and Soda pop .
@GT66 – exactly, this is a pretty cool high school science project. It’s the shoddy, false REPORTING in Western media that’s at fault, rather than what was done.
@Charles Martel -
- you’re assuming only fossil fuels provide useful power. Wrong. Especially if you’re v. poor, where *some* electric is a quantum leap from *none*.
There IS a need for storage cells of whatever type (something like this, trad lead-acid cells, or better still pump water into uphill storage tanks – doubly useful) to work in conjunction with intermittent energy generation from solar / wind.
For example this 14 year old lad from Malawi transformed his effectively medieval village by applying the science he read about to build electric generating windmills:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8257153.stm
Any kind of battery / storage cell is useful in context.
(I’ve lived in a largely solar + battery powered home for three years, so I also have personal experience of this)
- Also, fresh, dilute piss is indeed be beneficial for plants up to a point – but if it is allowed to get too concentrated in situ it will kill ‘em off depending on species and pH tolerance.
Check out those dead patches of grass where dogs have been pissing regularly (pH too high for grass to live, even tho’ useful nitrogen is high). Often surrounded by a perimeter ring of greener grass (pH ok, usable N lower than in centre of ring, but still at a higher than “normal” level = better growth).
When piss gets concentrated is when you get more ammonia realeased which is an alkali… And funnily enough it’s pretty fuckin’ hot in Africa and that means… EVAPORATION… which will concentrate that piss, pretty damn quick.
Also, that piss may often be produced where it’s not convenient to transport it to fields / gardens, so it’s waste that needs treating – IN CONTEXT.
In a nutshell mate, you’re wrong about the science*, and wrong about possible utilities of said device in an African context.
(*I’ve a PhD in biochemistry from a proper old traditional Uni.
So, you’re outgunned on the bioscience front)
Detail correction:
It’s not so much pH one way or another that causes the dead grass effect, as the overall concentration of nitrogen compounds. Too much = bad.
@The First Joe
As I recall you’re living on a narrow boat with your electrical power provided by one small PVA. You can run a light bulb or your computer but not both at the same time, or something like that.
So I can see why you’re determined to go to bat for pee power.
You can split hairs all you want on the chemistry of the urea cell. It doesn’t change the fact that water electrolysis is not an invention, the urea cell is not an invention, generating electricity this way is net energy negative unless your electrical input is “free” somehow and that this device is overall highly impractical. Other than that, it’s great.
So why has the Nigerian girls’ “invention” been trumpeted around the world? It’s an exercise in pure feminist propaganda and scientific deception, neatly packaged for the illiterate masses.
Wow, imagine if we could harness power from all the SHIT Western feminists produce! We would never pay for energy again!
Why stop there? I understand that women somewhere else ( think it is in either Sweden or Angola, but it may be Uzbagstan, have done something similar with menstrual blood, The details are rather disgusting, but it has something to do with putting the collected menses in a boiler and having the steam drive a turbine or something of the sort.
I don’t exactly recall where I heard it from, but no doubt we will soon be inundated with the news, in all the disgusting feminist detail, as the women are awarded a global celebration day for their “menstrual generator” which will no doubt be discovered to stop “global warming’ while they are about it.
HA HA HA HA HA!! LMAO!
PEACE AND FREEDOM!!