Mexican Engineer Extracts Biogas from Urine
June 15, 2016http://phys.org/news/2016-06-mexican-gas-urine-shower.html
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Gabriel Luna-Sandoval, an engineer from the University of Sonora State in Mexico, has invented a machine that can transform urine into a biogas to serve as a household heater to take hot showers or cook.
His prototype has a clear acrylic container where urine is poured. This contains stainless steel electrodes to send electricity into to separate oxygen and hydrogen, with the latter becoming a biogas. The container would be connected to a home's pipes through which the biogas would travel to heat the water in the kitchen and bathrooms.
The invention requires just 13 to 21 milliliters of urine for a 15-minute hot shower and cooking beans for one hour demands only 70 to 130 milliliters of the liquid. His invention caught the attention of the governmental National Science and Technology Council, which featured Luna-Sandoval in an article for its official publication.
Luna-Sandoval also claims that the extracted oxygen from urine could be useful to astronauts, as they could take the device in space to create O2 with their own bodily fluid. The idea has been taken seriously by the Mexican Space Agency.
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