Cell Phone Powered By Urine 88
sciencehabit writes "The newest source of battery power for your cell phone is both cheap and abundant. Scientists report that microbial fuel cells using human urine can directly power a cell phone battery. However, the devices are not quite portable enough to come in handy during a marathon pub crawl. One consists of six, 4-inch-long ceramic cylinders; the other is a network of 25 smaller fuel cells borrowed from the team's waste-fueled EcoBot. And urine-powered conversations would have to be short and sweet. After 24 hours of charging, a Samsung phone stayed alive for 25 minutes—enough to send several texts and make a 6-minute, 20-second call."
grammar-school physics (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like people are rediscovering that you can make a battery out of any random electrolyte and two dissimilar metals to get grants.
Who *didn't* make a battery out of a potato or lemon as a kid, or at least didn't see it demonstrated in 4'th grade?
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BMO
Re:So shit tech then (Score:4, Insightful)
But this isn't a battery.... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a fuel cell, not a simple primary cell like you make from a lemon and a couple coins. The urine isn't acting as a simple electrolyte here.
The urine acts as the fuel, and a fuel cell will keep producing power as long as it has fuel and oxygen. Unlike a primary electrochemical cell, the electrodes are not consumed as part of the reaction.