Strange But True: Researchers extracting hydrogen from urine
Posted Jul 4th 2009 4:08PM by Jeremy Korzeniewski
Currently, most commercially available hydrogen is collected by reforming natural gas with steam. That means fossil fuels are still in the mix, which is a serious black mark against hydrogen use for fuel. While it's possible to extract hydrogen from water, the process is rather energy intensive and isn't yet commercially viable.
Gerardine Botte of Ohio University believes she may have one possible solution. Instead of cracking hydrogen away from its tight bond in water, the University has demonstrated that it takes much less energy to extract hydrogen from urine, whether that's synthetic urea or real, honest-to-goodness human urine.
As the single most abundant waste on the planet, there's certainly no shortage of urine in the world and, according to the Botte, this technology can be quickly and easily scaled up as a way to both generate hydrogen and help clean up sewage plants. Sounds like a win-win scenario to us.
[Source: Chemistry World | Photo: estherase]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jan 4:30PM (7/04/2009)
I predict more pissing contests when this takes off ;-)
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Yanquetino 4:39PM (7/04/2009)
Sheesh... what next from H2 advocates? This adds a whole new meaning to "nozzle rage"...!
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Mike 4:51PM (7/04/2009)
So can it also be scaled down? Mobile hydrogen production, just urinate in the tank?
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jboy 5:08PM (7/04/2009)
Yes, exactly! Just like the natural gas Civic where you can fart into the gas tank.
NeilBlanchard 9:58PM (7/04/2009)
Hi,
I'm pretty sure the headline should read:
"Strange But True: Researchers extracting hydrogen from urine"
[/typo patrol]
Neil
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John Rowell 11:26PM (7/04/2009)
I wonder how they came up with the idea to try extracting hydrogen from urine, of all things...
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treehugger 12:56AM (7/05/2009)
this pisses me off, I don't want my urine to be used as a mere fuel for cars
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Snoopy 3:35PM (7/05/2009)
Hehe. Sorry. Are you sure this pisses you off? Isn't that exactly what they're looking for? :p
Sorry, sorry. Had to do it.
ray 1:11AM (7/05/2009)
Guess I better start breeding like the fruit fly, more family members more free fuel. Maybe truck drivers won't pee in a bottle and throw it out on the hwy now.
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Hans 1:45AM (7/05/2009)
Harharhar, you witty people. Give them a break - if there's a good way to combine a waste problem with an energy solution then hey... Just the question 'how' remains very unanswered by this article. Bore me with the chemical details guys
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Snoopy 3:56PM (7/05/2009)
The same question's on my mind. Are people with hydrogen cars going to need special toilets that filter out the liquids from the solids (we don't just urinate, right) sending them to another filter to extract the hydrogen? Or would they expect to just take from the sewer system and then sell it back to us, essentially profiting from our own, uh, "hard work"?
Also, exactly how much hydrogen could you possibly get from urine anyway? Would it be enough that over a few days of going, you could produce enough fuel for general weekly use?
On a good note, this could deal with the excess estrogen (endocrine disruptors) in our water system issue (For Americans - http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/232640/july-01-2009/nicholas-kristof : For Canadians - http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-colbert-report/full-episodes/july-1-2009/#clip188422.
Sean P 9:49AM (7/06/2009)
Well, IIRC, urea is NH3, so for every two molecules of urea, you can get three H2 molecules and two N2 molecules (which incidentally has been used in liquid form to fuel prototype ICEs back in the late 80s/early 90s.) Sounds good, assuming the energy required to break the NH3 bonds is significantly less than other H2 extraction/production methods.
Hans Waarle 2:01AM (7/07/2009)
That gave me the hint: urea can be oxidised in an electrolysis process, according to http://www.physorg.com/news165836803.html and needs a significantly lower voltage than classic water hydrolysis. The waste products are possibly nitrogen and some form of carbonate or CO2 (it's been a while since my chemistry lessons :-), which can be fairly safely released/recycled. Clever. My worry is, that the process input contains an uncontrollable amount of other stuff, which might complicate things in reality.
Luke 5:00AM (7/05/2009)
Finally, my urine collection has paid off!
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Larry Miller 2:17AM (7/07/2009)
That urine-powered car is gonna need lots of cup holders.
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