After Hurricane Sandy ripped the East Coast to shreds, thousands of people were left stranded without power, shelter and in some cases, hope. These unlucky individuals could have used a recent idea created by four african teenage girls. Fourteen-year-olds Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin, and 15-year-old Bello Eniola showcased their unique invention, a urine-powered generator, at the Maker Faire Africa earlier this month. The annual event, which was held in Lagos, Nigeria this year, gathers the small Einstein's throughout Africa together for a look at ideas that may help shape the future of their continent.
- Maker Faire Africa
The urine-powered generator works like this:
• 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.
After all said is done, the one liter of urine gives you six hours of electricity. Yes, six hours! That's a lot of power for a few trips to the restroom, simply brilliant.
