does this golden generator have promise?

[brainhulk]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105...-african-teens-create-urine-fueled-generator/

n a stroke of ingenuity that could have proven handy during Hurricane Sandy, four teenage African girls have come up with a urine-powered generator.
Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, and Faleke Oluwatoyin, all 14, and Bello Eniola, 15, collaborated on the invention, which they claim generates one hour of electricity from one liter (about a quart) of urine.
The pee-powered product made its debut at Maker Faire Africa in Lagos, Nigeria, this week. A post on the Maker Faire Africa blog describes the generator's workings in the following words:
Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.
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.

 

[SunnyD]

I wonder if the catalysts and reagents are most costly than it's worth.

 

[DesiPower]

uri-nec-tricity!

 

[DesiPower]

I wonder if the catalysts and reagents are most costly than it's worth.

I am very sure they are, Its more of a sham coz urine is being used just as "electrolyte" if you will, which can be achieved/obtained in several other ways. If you can get all the other components, then you can easily get the "electrolyte" too.

 

[KeithP]

The blog doesn't mention where the energy needed to power the electrolytic cell comes from, or whether the electrolytic cell uses more power than the machine generates...

but they aren't the first to propose urine (or more solid human and animal waste) as a possible alternative fuel.
Last year, in one example, researchers from Ohio University came up with their own technology for extracting hydrogen from urine.

In other words, they haven't done anything new and its unlikely to be useful technology.

-KeithP

 

[Nemesis 1]

I wonder if the catalysts and reagents are most costly than it's worth.

Does this mean we can sell our urine as fuel to the waste disposal companies . How is it that young girls in Africa came up with this . or is this something long known but was kept from development? What other inventions have been suppressed.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Isn't this more or less the same as the hydrogen catalyst car add-on scams that are supposed to save you gas mileage?