Urine is a better source of hydrogen than water - TECH.BLORGE.comYou read that right. Urine is a better source of hydrogen than water. An added benefit is that rather than using clean water, which requires more energy to split into hydrogen and oxygen, waste stream urine can be used. Urine or specifically urea, uses less energy than water to generate hydrogen gas.
Ohio University associate Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, Gerardine Botte sees waste streams as our source for renewable fuel, specifically hydrogen. Hydrogen is considered the cleanest renewable fuel because all it generates is water. However, producing the hydrogen has proven too expensive to be cost effective.
Producing hydrogen gas from urine is much easier and cheaper than using water. Urea, which is a major component of urine, has four hydrogen atoms per molecule. Those hydrogen atoms are easier to split off than hydrogen atoms in water.
Botte has developed a new inexpensive nickel-based electrode that oxidizes the urea through electrolysis. Only .37V needs to be applied to urea to break it down, whereas, water requires 1.23V are needed to break down water making urea a cheaper and easier way to go.
Urea electrolysis
During the electrochemical process the urea gets adsorbed on to the nickel electrode surface, which passes the electrons needed to break up the molecule,’ Botte told Chemistry World. This process leads to pure hydrogen at the cathode and nitrogen with tiny amounts of oxygen and hydrogen are found at the anode. Carbon dioxide that is released during is not found in the resultant gases but “reacts to potassium hydroxide in the solution to form potassium carbonate”.
There are still issues that need to be ironed out. One of the major problems is the high cost of separating urea from water. Also, Botte’s team is “currently conducting long term stability studies on their electrolysis systems, as well as conducting computational experiments to better understand the mechanisms at work”.
Surely inexpensive methods can be used to collect the urine before it hits the water but those are probably easier for men than women. Some tinkering with toilets might provide a way to collect urine, but odor neutralizers would have to be included.
Botte’s team has found a cheap source and method for generating hydrogen gas. Now all we need is a cheap convenient way to collect the necessary urine.
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