The technology to take the electrolytes and other chemicals found in urine and convert them to electricity was not a simple task. They had to identify a bacteria that could convert the waste, grow it on a material that would allow the collection and transfer of the energy (in this case carbon fiber anodes) put it in a suitable container (ceramic cylinders) and then… well pee in them and hope. Although certainly brilliant we want to know; where did this idea come from in the first place? Was someone sitting around thinking about ways to recycle urine or did someone drop their phone in the toilet during a “go” and wish their phone was not dead?

The new technology is still very much in its infancy as even a car battery sized unit was only able to charge a cellphone enough to send a couple of texts and browse the internet for a few minutes. There is a lot more work that will need to be done to make this viable in the future. The battery unit needs to be reduced in size while power output is increased. They will also (probably) need to work on a way to reduce the odor of the urine stored in the cell. Who would want a phone that has that particular odor coming from it? The researchers from the University of Bristol and Bristol Robotics Laboratory think that these issues should not be impossible to overcome and eventually will be used to charge other devices in the home (hopefully not kitchen appliances…). Who knows, one day we might find ourselves not cursing if we drop our cellphones in the toilet… it might just be how we recharge them.

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