Not satisfied with simply turning pee into drinking water, scientists have managed to also convert the waste products into an energy source.
Image: NASA
If you thought we were excited yesterday when naval scientists announced they'd converted seawater into jet fuel, you should have seen us when we read astronauts were doing the same with their urine - and producing drinkable water at the same time.
Scientists on board the International Space Station are constantly struggling with ways to get rid of waste, including bodily fluids. Instead of simply ejecting it into space, researchers from the University of Puerto Rico working with the NASA Ames Research Centre came up with a better plan - why not turn it into drinking water and do something useful with the waste products?
Using a process called forward osmosis, the researchers filtered the contaminants from the water and urea that make up urine. And then their Urea Bioreactor Electrochemical system efficiently converted the urea byproduct into ammonia.
With an existing fuel cell, they proved they could turn the ammonia into energy. The system was able to remove more than 80 percent of organic carbons from the wastewater, and convert an impressive 86 percent of the urea to ammonia, the researchers reported in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
It's a great breakthrough for astronauts who have limited resources and storage room in space, but the system could also be used in any wastewater treatment systems containing urea and/or ammonia, the researchers concluded.
So that's pretty much any toilet, right? As far as sustainable (and accessible) energy components go, pee definitely seems much more practical than seawater.
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