Let there be light: New urine-powered light bulbs bring light to refugee camps

"Pee Power" is what the people are calling this strange innovation. British students and researchers, from the University of the West of England and the OxFam global aid agency, have invented a mode in which light bulbs can be powered by urine. The University has developed a prototype so people in refugee camps can have a source of power.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - The Pee Power urinal contains microbes inside microbial fuel cell stacks that's main nutrition source is urine. These microbes produce static biochemical energy which later on is converted into electricity.

During the experimental stage of the invention, the students were able to operate one light bulb with less than one liter of urine.

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Ioannis Ieropoulos, director of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre and leader of the team that led the discovery, recognizes the great potential this invention holds for places where electricity is scarce.

"We do not need to use fossil fuels and we are effectively using a waste product that will be in plentiful supply," he said in an interview with Reuters.

The first sample of the experimental toilet, placed near the student's union bar of the UWE, was found to be successful by the students who tested it. The prototype was indeed able to generate enough electricity to power one light bulb.

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According to OxFam, their invention is bound to be distributed to several refugee camps in six months. After that, places with high electricity shortage will be the next ones targeted.

Students from University of the West of England will be giving the "Pee Power" urinal a test for them to experience themselves. The said urinal will be installed outside the student's union bar on late next week

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