An image allegedly shows a group of high school girls who invented a urine powered generator. Today we’ll look into this photo and the claims behind it.
The image and story are real, however critics have pointed out that this device is likely an impossibility as a stand-alone generator.
The photo shows three of four girls who invented a urine-powered generator displayed at the Maker Faire Africa. It was posted online in November 2012 and described in the following manner:
Possibly one of the more unexpected products at Maker Faire Africa this year in Lagos is a urine powered generator, created by four girls. The girls are Duro-Aina Adebola (14), Akindele Abiola (14), Faleke Oluwatoyin (14) and Bello Eniola (15).
1 Liter of urine gives you 6 hours of electricity.
The Maker Faire Africa website described the device as working in the following manner:
The system 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.
Along the whole way there are one-way valves for security, but let’s be honest that this is something of an explosive device…
That the machine works by first filtering urine into pure water, from which hydrogen is extracted. It is possible to produce hydrogen from urine, but this machine is claimed to achieve an efficiency beyond what is thought possible. We are also not told how many watts are being generated by the device.
Does it work?
While it is possible to build a generator that could convert urine into power, the question is if this particular group of girls has actually created such a device. Critics have pointed out that more energy should be required to split water molecules into hydrogen than the hydrogen fuel could produce.
Gerardine Botte
The Ohio University chemical engineer who invented the urea electrolysis process, Gerardine Botte, was asked by NBC News to comment on the generator. She responded, “What these kids are doing is taking urea electrolysis and making hydrogen and then using that hydrogen to make electricity.” Botte concluded, however, “You will never get more energy out than you put in because you are treating urea … but it is a unique and elegant way to treat urine waste, which will allow you to co-generate electricity.”
The girls in the photo
The girls shown in the photo were interviewed a few months after the image was published, and they provided additional insight into their invention. All four girls were members of a school club known as the Junior Engineers, Technicians and Scientists Club, or JETS Club.
In the interview, the girls described the reasons for creating such a generator and told of issues with early models:
“The first one that we did actually exploded because the gas backfired. The hydrogen gas was supposed to go in a one-way direction, so this led to the explosion in the electrolytic cell. So our teacher, Mr. Lawal, told us that we had to insert a one-way valve. So we got that from a bicycle tire so that the gas can only go in one-way direction.”
The girls also stated that they were working on a more compact model which would be included in a single, portable device.
Bottom Line
It appears likely that the girls did invent a generator of some sort, but the problem of efficiency hasn’t been answered. The invention was perhaps best summed up by a respected chemical engineer who applauded the effort, but was skeptical of the efficiency and reminded readers it was simply a “high school project.”
Sources
- A Urine Powered Generator (Maker Faire Africa)
- People Are Suspicious About This Pee-Powered Generator (Motherboard)
- Producing hydrogen from urine (Phys.org)
- African girls’ pee-powered generator raises questions (NBC News: Nov. 8, 2012)
Updated November 4, 2015
Originally posted May 2013
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