Army rations rehydrated by urine

[psychopomp]

Army rations rehydrated by urine | New Scientist


19:00 21 July 04


Would you eat food cooked in your own urine? Food scientists working for the US military have developed a dried food ration that troops can hydrate by adding the filthiest of muddy swamp water or even peeing on it.

The ration comes in a pouch containing a filter that removes 99.9 per cent of bacteria and most toxic chemicals from the water used to rehydrate it, according to the Combat Feeding Directorate, part of the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts. This is the same organisation that created the "indestructible sandwich" that will stay fresh for three years (New Scientist print edition, 10 April 2002).

The aim is to reduce the amount of water soldiers need to carry. One day's food supply of three meals, weighs 3.5 kilograms but that can be reduced to about 0.4 kilograms with the dehydrated pouches, says spokeswoman Diane Wood.

The pouch - containing chicken and rice initially - relies on osmosis to filter the water or urine. When two solutions of different concentrations are separated by a semipermeable membrane, with gaps that allow only water molecules to pass through, the water is drawn to the more concentrated side.
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< http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996185 >

Pretty cool.

[aquart]

1. Pee on food. Starve to death. Pee on food. Starve to death. Pee on food...

Can I get back to you on that?

[Ready4Change]

2. Pee on food. Carry 24lbs of water. Pee on food. Carry 24lbs of water.

If they can prove these things work I think at least special ops guys will LOVE them.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Army rations always tasted like piss...

so they're just cutting out the middleman.

Interesting to see how the recruiters deal with this one.

[TX-RAT]

7. Army rations always tasted like piss..."?

No kidding!
I ate a ton of C-Rats in the Army, piss could only be an improvement.

[indigobusiness]

4. I think the Army should pee on the Pentagon

and then go eat at Sardi's.

[frylock]

5. and it makes it's own gravy!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[treepig]

6. urine is (theoretically) sterile

so that's probably not a bad idea.

but removing "99.9% of bacteria - that's a bit scarier (considering that they can multiply and all that - some bacteria can increase 1000-fold in less than four hours - but i guess the soldier should at least be grateful for the extra four hours he or she has before falling ill or dying).

[LibLabUK]

10. Uri-licious...

"but removing "99.9% of bacteria - that's a bit scarier (considering that they can multiply and all that"

You're going to be pretty safe if you remove 99.9% of bacteria. Most diarrhoeal disease organisms (Shigella being a notable exception) require quite large doses for them to cause illness.

[happyslug]

8. This is a JOKE

Your body uses WATER to process food. In fact if you are short of water, you will survive longer if YOU DO NOT EAT. The reason for this is your body will use any water it takes in (or is already in your body) to process fat and other internal energy sources and to COOL YOUR Body. If you eat, your body will use water to process the food intake and thus less water for internal uses (Including releases already stored energy) and cooling.

My guess someone convinced someone that you could remove the impurities from piss you would have water and thus you could have an fully enclosed system (Water to piss than back to water). That is CORRECT, but it will NOT procure enough water to survive on. A person loses most of his or her water through perspiration (i.e. your skin), and aspiration, (i.e. your lungs), or through your bowels (i.e. your shit). Compared to these three output of water, piss is quite small (Except when removing containments from the blood, i.e. excess water, excess alcohol, even excess soda-water).

What I think happened is two drunks where pissing in an urinal after a all night drinking party and thought that if you could covert piss to water a soldier would have to carry less water. The Drunks did not realize that their pissing was the body removing EXCESS WATER and EXCESS ALCOHOL from their system NOT operating as it would in an environment with a shortage of water (When most people will try to avoid drinking alcohol as while as eating if water is in short supply).

Theoretically possible, but given what water will be recovered not worth the weight of the equipment to filter the piss. Now it will work with some of the bad water outthere in the world, but given the assumption of water shortage it would be better to tell the soldier NOT to eat until he has access to water.

One side note, except in the desert, it is rare not to have access to water. During WWII, an survivor of a Frighter sunk by a U-Boat survived almost 400 days without food or water. His food was the fish in the sea, the water was rain water he caught during the rainstorms that hit almost everyplace on the world's oceans.

Thus this water saving is for Desert areas. The systme will work, but so will conventional filters, to the degree needed to avoid containmention from water born germs (Assuming use to filter bad water not Piss). Boiling water will also kill germs (But not purify piss). They are various efficient stoves (inlcuding "Solar Stoves") capable of boiling water.

This is simply wishful thinking of a way to avoid hauling water for our troops in desert areas.

[psychopomp]

11. If I get it right

This innovation is meant to be a means to conserve water. It is not meant to obviate the need to carry drinking water. I imagine that mobile soldiers do not always have the ability to find a source of water at all-especially during battle-and would find this idea worthwhile.

[Cicero]

9. Reminds me of the joke...(hope I'm getting it right)

A comparison of what people drink

Americans drink weak, pissy tasting beer.
Canadians drink strong, pissy tasting beer.
The British drink strong, beery tasting piss.
And Australians will drink anything that will get them laid.

Enjoy.

:crazy:

Later,