Obama could start talking about a yellow energy future

[zulchzulu]

It's the weekend in the summer and you could support your country's energy future next year by imbibing on adult beverages and making your car run at about 60 miles per gallon. That's nothing to piss at, err...

A scientist at Ohio University has developed a catalyst capable of extracting hydrogen from urine. That’s right. Urine. Now you can fill one tank while draining another.

Garardine Botte claims the device uses significantly less energy than is needed to extract hydrogen from water and says it could power hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the near future. Her electrolyzer uses a nickel-based electrode to extract hydrogen from urea (NH2)2CO, the main component in urine. Hydrogen is less tightly bound to the nitrogen in urea than to the oxygen in water, so the electrolyzer needs just 0.37 volts across the cell to oxidize the urea, according to Botte. That’s less than half the amount of energy in an AA battery and considerably less than the 1.23 volts needed to split water.

One of hydrogen’s biggest stumbling blocks to use as an alternative fuel is the amount of energy needed to produce it. And then there’s the matter of distributing it. Botte says her gadget eliminates such problems because it’s small enough to integrate into an automobile. Urine is also readily available — your body produces two to three liters of it each day, and it is the most abundant form of waste on the planet. We could treat waste water while fueling our cars.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/07/pee-powered-cars

Consider a hybrid that runs on urine and chicken poop. I think the future looks like a relief to me.

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. Rec'd just for the concept. nt

[Berry Cool]

3. And think of it...those of us who have cats could really drive!

But even if it didn't work with cat urine...how perfect a situation would this be?

"You know, they say you never really buy fuel for your car anymore...you just rent it."

[napoleon_in_rags]

7. Lol! A whole new argument for cats.

Adds a second step to changing the litter box, but what the hell. ;)

[PretzelWarrior]

2. don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. this idea is full of shit. :)

just kidding. but the headlines are and will be awesome.

[xchrom]

4. now i have to go pee. nt

[Qutzupalotl]

5. We wouldn't need rest areas anymore.

:)

[vaberella]

6. Oh my fuckin' God. There's a Korean movie like this. Except it deals with shit.

Too funny, that disgusting film was ahead of it's time, after all.

[NYC_SKP]

8. "Five Ways to Turn Excrement Into Energy"

I visited a Biogas plant on Wednesday that turns cow pee and poo into useful methane......which is then pumped into the state's natural gas pipeline infrastructure.

The methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere post peeing and pooping are collected and stored in a 37 foot deep digesting pond covered with a thick membrane.

Methane is a fuel, but released into the atmosphere is 21 times more harmful as a greenhouse gas than CO2.

Vintage Diary is featured in the article below, along with four other exciting ways to get energy from pee and poo.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/five-ways-to-make-energy-with-excrement.php

:P

[IDemo]

9. Might put a stop to this problem->

Urine bottles littering road hint at dangers truckers face

By Winnipeg Free PressJune 28, 2008


WINNIPEG -- Twenty-eight - count 'em - 28 bottles of urine littered the roadside along a 35-kilometre stretch outside Winnipeg.

Some half-buried in the dirt, others in the ditches on the edge of the cut grass. Pepsi bottles. Dasani water bottles. Lipton iced tea bottles. Bottles with tattered labels, some with cracked lids oozing liquid, many deformed from the impact of being tossed to the curb.

"Piss jugs? I got six of them in my truck now," said trucker Gordy Thomson of Wallaceburg, Ont., during a rest break at a truck stop near Headingley, Man., on his way to Atlanta with a load of Manitoba french fries.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=ab5e6eee-c58e-437d-8931-4fc3546446f5

[lindisfarne]

10. Except you can't really increase an individual's manufacturing potential. Drinking more just dilutes

the urea. So no, there isn't a good argument to allow drinking beer while driving.