Hydrogen from urine; methane from faeces. Perhaps we should pay people to perform their natural functions. This would be better than workfare or paying people to do nothing. This could have a beneficial redistributive effect on the world economy. One cause for caution is that deserts were created partly by burning animal waste instead of returning manure to the soil, so we should be wary of making this process too efficient.

um... If it takes .37 volts to cause electrolysis in urea and a hydrogen fuel cell produces .8 volts under load that would imply that you could run 2 of these urea electrolysis cells in series off one fuel cell. This would produce 2x as much H2 as was being used to produce it. Interesting.

Mere number of volts does not describe sufficiently the amount of energy being transferred or produced. Drawing conclusions based on only one value in the formula will give inaccurate perception of the process ;)

I remember asking my organic chemistry professor in school why they didn’t do this exact process for energy.

The whole class laughed at me!

Anyway, I’m glad someone is now doing it. I don’t think that coming up with fresh uncontaminated urine will be a problem, just put in a little toilet under the driver’s seat to fill up the fuel tank. Have a lever to empty the old urine daily, rinse to clean, and re-fill!

I also think that they should have a separate toilet/energy converter in every house and use urine to power everyday household things.

There. Now when someone else does this, at least it’s documented that I thought of it too!

You brought out the idea I had as well, that the hydrogen should be produced as soon as possible after exiting the huoman body - not giving the bacteria much chance to start porducing ammonium. By the time the fuild reaches central water cleaning, uch of the valuabel urea will have been lost already.