Urine Powered Battery Developed
Saeed al-Sahaf writes "Research investment into developing smaller and cheaper chips to process information in disposable health tests has been significant, but they were still reliant on an external power source. The researchers at Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology think they have overcome this problem with their latest urine powered battery. From the article "The battery is composed of paper, soaked in copper chloride, sandwiched between layers of magnesium and copper. The whole thing, once laminated in plastic, is just a millimeter thick, and 6cm by 3cm in size." The breakthrough promises a cheap and disposable power source for home health tests."
Don't bother pissing in the radiator. Now you can piss in the GAS TANK!
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
Next up: Bullshit powered battery. John Dvorak would probably be able to fuel his entire home from the stuff he spews!
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
That'd make for one huge pregnancy test!
First
I think its taking the piss.
this will be great for those car trips where my laptop's battery dies and I have to wiz at the same time.
I'll be right back, I have to go fill up my laptop's battery....
Space for rent, inquire within
The whole thing, once laminated in plastic, is just a millimeter thick
So how does a reasonably sized chap introduce his electrolyte?
Why don't they just give us a hand crank? They're more than efficient to power or charge all sorts of small electronics. All we need is a universal plug interface, and we can all be our own emergency backups.
"Pee in this... and turn this."
While they're at it, why doesn't my car have an emergency gear/wheel/crank system that I can connect ot my battery on cold days when my Jolapy won't start?
Now I have a legitimate reason to piss all over the Compaq laptops at work.. No more awkward thinking up spur of the moment excuses
What's that smell?
Absolute power!
So, does that make urine an energy drink?
...piss ON!
It keeps going, and going, and going...
I wonder if the power comes from the urine, or if urine is acting as an electrolyte that allows the energy stored in the "paper, soaked in copper chloride, sandwiched between layers of magnesium and copper" to be released.
Ceci n'est pas une sig
I saw that once in a bar near LA: there was a urinal with a 3x3 square hole and the top half of a small paddlewheel behind it. A small sign advised that it was an electronic pissing contest machine, and that men who could turn the paddlewheel the fastest would win a free supersize softdrink (to play again no doubt). A bulb on top of the urinal would go brighter and brighter as the paddlewheel would turn faster.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The copy writing muse wispered to me.. These are going to be called "UP Batteries" Urine Powered...
- Henrik
- when the Shadows descend -
Got to be a joke in there somewhere...
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
It better come with a funnel!
Linux: Free if your time is worthless.
I've had a windows ME box that's been powered by feces for years...
Kneel before Sig!
Even if I could pee into this battery without making a mess of my hands (eeewwww!)... You would still have to dump it and clean it. I really don't think this pee-battery will make it in America w/o a dramatic culture change.
----
WxChem
Maker of the Nerd Test
http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_nq.php
WxChem
I'm a nerd, are you?
albeit indirectly, a beer powered battery.
9:48pm up 426 day(s), 6:01, 16 users, load average: 220.60, 138.45, 63.50
So, let me get this straight...
It's a battery.
Shipped dry.
Electrolyte added only when needed.
How is this new?
(It's not really urine powered anyway. Urine is just the electrolyte.)
I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.
Some called my "yellow jar" collection strange. Looks like the joke's on you, people!
Calvin becomes new Enron CEO. News at 11...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Health tests my ass...more likely drug tests. Now it can wireless the data it senses to a handheld! They can have the cops waiting for you outside before you even know it...
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. Dwight D. Eisenhower
I always knew she was trolling.
or is someone just taking the piss?
This battery is going to take the pressure off the industry. It doesn't take a whiz to see that they're looking out for number one. Trust me, these guys are going to make a big splash very soon!
Drink more beer!
More beer > more urine > more battery power!
Woohoo! (hic)
A Pee-Powered Peltier Six Pack Cooler!
Ok, so the first two beers are warm. I could live with it.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
Talk about dick tack toe...
Make big buck$ with your kidney problem:
To learn how, send $1.95 to:
(blah, blah, blah)
The whole thing, once laminated in plastic, is just a millimeter thick, and 6cm by 3cm in size...0.2 millilitres of urine the battery will provide around 1.5 volts, with a maximum power output of 1.5 milli-Watts
.001 Amps = 1mA
So, let's get some facts...Jeeves says that normal humans feel the need to urinate when they hold 150 - 200mL of urine in their bladder. 200mL sounds decent for this math.
200mL / 0.2mL per battery = 1000 batteries that can be charged on a normal fill of urine.
1000 batteries * 1.5 mW per battery = 1.5 W
1000 batteries * 1.5 V per battery = 1500 V
1.5W / 1500V =
So, my own piss only has as much power as a spark of static electricity. Sorry folks, but it's going to take more than one run to the toilet to power your laptop.
If this thing could be made small enough, it could be put within the > bladder</a> (1.1 to 1.3 litres) to work as a permanent machine. It could talk using 802.11b and bluetooth, be its own 'hotspot' so that a human mesh can be made. You wouldnt need to carry a wallet at all. It could also check your health that way. I wonder if it can be used with a plug and an actuator to 'hold it' for you when you really have to go and have nowhere to go.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
The breakthrough promises a cheap and disposable power source for home health tests. ... that you pee on.
Oh, how I could use an empty battery right now.
Or 20.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
> Got to be a joke in there somewhere...
too bad you didn't make one...
In Soviet Russia, battery piss on YOU!
Entire universities could be powered by frat boys as they piss on the lawn and walls after getting drunk.
"Don't whiz on the electric fence"
you could then combine it with this system, and you'd have a... um... piss-powered and controlled PSP. (SFW)
More of a "pee-ess-pee", I guess.
(i like that they use a chick with a strap-on for the photos... makes the whole thing hotter, somehow)
m-
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
----------------
mobile search - try it on your phone
Perfect for the Senior set! Build these into their Depends or Serenity pee pads and they can power their hearing aid, ipod, etc. Being an aging geek and getting closer to 'the home' every day, maybe i'll see this in action
Comment removed based on user account deletion
While this is all well and good, I'm waiting to add power to my bladder so that I will be able to achieve a captain planet (water)-like pressure with which to vanquish Duke Nukem.
...you insensitive clod!
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
They should make diapers with this, so when your baby pees itself, you'd know to change their diaper before they have to cry.
Oh, and blue LEDs would like up on their crotch, because that would be cool, or err wierd.
Just because it's an electrolyte doesn't mean it's not powering it right?
What other device gets power from urine?
1 battery outputs 1.5 mW / 1.5V = 1mA
theoretically you could get 1A at 1.5V by wiring them in parallel, OR 1mA at 1500V by wiring them serial, both outputting 1.5W of power.
In other news: Government makes it legal to drink & drive if the car is UP (urine powered)
...we will see spam for More Piss, More Power with BL4DD3R En14r63MeNT??2?
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
The "potty power system" - Just piss in this little funnel, and presto - more power for your laptop and cell phone....
What will they think of next.....
I wonder how much power you can out of 100 people pissing in the pot....? has anyone published the specs on this?
J
until the next model; the one that incorporates crystalized urea. Then "just-add-water" will work. If they can do it this way, it will be much more acceptable, IMHO.
Prices of beer increase amidst high oil prices as one of beer's by-products is a viable oil substitute.
sarchasm
No wait, seriously: What chemical component is it converting? The ammonia? The acids?
The concept isn't hard to believe, but the story isn't overflowing with hard facts..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I'm afraid this post will get lost in all of the pee-pee jokes, but what the hell. I don't see what function urine serves in these batteries. I didn't think urine was all that energetic. The article says these things can output a maximum of 1.5 mW at 1.5 V, so why not just use a tiny alkaline battery? A very tiny battery could be produced for a few cents and they have shelf lives of several years. I just don't see why you need to involve urine at all (other than the fact that it gets your research in the news). What am I missing?
If you can read this sig, you're too close.
Bullshit power!
As disgusting as this whole concept is, at least I know why Beavis spazzes out and turns into Cornholio whenever he drinks Volt Cola.
If it wasntnt april 1st, I would think someone was taking the piss.
My laptop runs on a You Pee Yes.
AT&ROFLMAO
After broadcasting Star Trek Enterprise, it is truely the Urine-Powered Network
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
Just my bigger male bird dog alone should be able to light up my block at night, and he's very accurate.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
to smell like piss.
A new job for the Mckenzie Brothers, if they don't accept the job with the fire department.
__________ Leave me alone I'm compiling a RPG II program on my S/36...Thanks to metamucil I'm a Regular Meta Moderator
I have to recharge my cell phone,
aaah,
There you go,
now, you were saying?
If you can rig up a system to spin the alternator (by re-mounting the alternator and using a jacked-up wheel with a belt for a flywheel), you can generate the ~14 volts needed to charge a 12V battery (charge voltage must be higher than discharge voltage - I won't explain that here, look it up), and with no fancy tools, you can recharge the battery enough for a start-up within a couple hours.
That's with NO special tools. If there was a crank system designed into the car, efficiency would increase so much (you also wouldn't have to remount the alternator) that you could get the car started with 10-15 minutes of cranking (and one hell of a tired arm).
The biggest problem with the ad-hoc system is that modern alternators require a starting voltage across their inner coil in order to BEGIN charging (again I won't explain here), and without a special system, you would be relying on residual battery voltage for the alternator start-up. If it was planned for, the crank would start by juicing the inner coil, then transition to spinning the alternator once the coil is charged and feeding back into the car's battery.
With all due respect, not knowing the solution does not mean there is no solution.
Now watch them just piss their financing away...
the question of sanitation is important: NOTE: if using near open wounds, festering sores, rashes, recent cuts, abrasions, lesions, PARTICULARLY ON THE HANDS, pee with extreme caution. Battery works only if assembly is complete.
Instead of plugging your laptop in, now you plug yourself in
...
And to think I was worried before about having a uroscopy...
should we call it bladdery acid?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Or are they just taking the piss?
Seriously, this could be quite useful. It is just using the urine as an electrolyte, but a cheap disposable home all-in-one urine chemistry test would piss all over the competition.
"Hey Jerry, could I put you on hold for a second, I have to take a wizz on my cell phone if you're going to be more than a few minutes."
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
Now we have some idea what keeps SCO going...
McBride wouldn't have to pay a light bill for the past couple years, further makes money exporting power to the grid.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
On the first page of comments there was 90% jokes, a few nerdy comments, and that's it.
Seriously, consider how useful this could be for humanitarian organizations - an inexpensive, quick test that can detect illnesses... That's great.
That's the first thing I thought when I read the summary.
Everyone else seemed to think "LOLZ! He almost said penis!"
The Iraqi Information Minister is into Slashdot and "watersports" now? Well, good for him.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!"
Viper is the preferred editor of the Emacs operating system.
"You say that you drained the battery?"
"No, I said that the battery drained ME!"
"It was hell!" recalls former child.
Imagine the uses!
New Business Plan!
1) Make battery.
2) Piss!
3) PROFIT!!!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Now people won't be able to say that someone is "pissing it all away" when they will really be "pissing it all back".
(You see, I have this thing. It's called a sense of humor. As warped and cracked as it may be, it sets me leagues apart from those who don't have one. Mod appropriately.)
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
...where do you want to go today?
...for most geeks is the port to recharge their laptop battery won't be much bigger than the current 1/8" headphone jacks.
Guy next to you on the plane: "I think my laptop's running out of juice".
Stand up and declare "Urine luck!" and let the recharging begin!
(You were warned)
I'm sorry, but have you ever tried pissed on a battery before? Electric current through my schlong is something I can do with...!!!!
Ugh... sure would smell HORRIBLE, and yet somehow underpowered...
next time I test my excrements, will I need to urinate on it ?
The world belongs to those who get up early. - I'm far from being the king of Earth then
"you're in charge".
to err is human, to forgive is divine, to forget is... umm...
Now I almost *never* have to walk away from the computer!
I hear installation is a relatively painless process except for soldering the charge indicator LED's to the, umm, fuel source.
--- Shoo-be-doo-be-do-wop-say-what-yeah!
Exactly how is energy extracted from urine like this? What property of my pee is prone to chemically react?
At any rate, if I can get an electric car powered by this, I'll be set for life. Just use the money saved on each gallon of gas to buy 2 mountain dews (some human fuel)
Is that anything like an electric fence? Ouch...
This one's better suited for this thread: ALL YOUR PISS ARE BELONG TO US
Go hug some trees.
...or does it just run down your trouser leg?
"What's that smell? Absolute power!"
;)
Actually, if you're ina bar, thats 'ABSOLUT' power you are using
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Surely this article is just taking the piss.
I've been powering my clock for the past 20 years with a potato. A FRICKIN' POTATO!
/. doesn't have a spellcheck function. Or editing@!@#$
Or however you spell it. Damn Quayle, ever since him that word's given me uncertainty. And
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Now that's a real pisser!
...ain't that a pisser?
The first device will be a battery-powered hand washer.
beer powered battery and skip the middle man?
to keep her full of energy, i'll give her a golden shower!
So, where do I go to get my ThinkPad retrofitted with a catheter?
Great! Now I don't even have to get off the couch to change the batteries in my remote anymore. And as a side benefit, I don't have to *share* the remote anymore.
So, in the future...you could be stranded when your car won't start because you ran out of pee.
- Donny was a good bowler, and a good man.
You'd have to shake it to get the last drop outta it.
Hacksaw. Load up the copper-top and let's get the hell outta here.
later...
You piss in the blue cup and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You piss in the red cup and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Know what they say when you join the piss club?
Ur - in!
New York City instituted urine fueled batteries in their subway system, now the trains power themselves.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
No need for chemical strips, and small, hard-to-read plusses and minuses! If light bulb attached to urine strip lights up, you're pregnant!
Make sure that sucker is discharged before filling. bzzzzzzzt! YEEEOWWCH!
Remember... ZG9uJ3QgZm9yZ2V0IHRvIGRyaW5rIHlvdXIgb3ZhbHRpbmU=
"Scotty, I need more power NOW!!!"
"I canna go ane faster Cap'n, I'm givin' her all I got !!!"
Wait, you mean one can actually now power the electric fence they are pissing on? Rednecks rejoice!
With so many tech companies giving their employees free beverages, it was inevitable.
Build this into a diaper. The baby will get an electrical shock when he starts to pee in his diaper. He'll soon learn to cry or run for the potty first, pee later. It is incredible
Bert
Kids used to be potty-trained a year earlier compared to this day and age with super-absorbent diapers. Those manufacturers create their own market, like drug-addicts, significantly adding to the amount of domestic waste produced.
1. Navigate to www.engadget.com
2. Find cool story
3. Google text of that cool story (as to mask the location where that cool story was first discovered)
4. CTRL+A, CTRL+C
5. Create new slashdot post, CTRL+V
6. PROFIT
Anybody else seeing a lot of slashdot/engadget mirror posts?
I can't remember the last time I forgot anything.
That is just taking the piss...
(and converting it into energy)
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Wow.
So, Mr. Anon, either you are gay, or you are a homophobe who doesn't know he's gay. With that much imagery of gay sex, you have to be gay.
has a lot of potential as well! They have gotta do something with that.
Java Oracle Linux Enthusiast
What's it matter to you? Homophobe.
Duracell: We piss all over your new batteries!
Researcher: Thanks!
You must think in Russian.
Probably their next step will be sperm-based batteries. That would make pr0n sites self-energizing!
They must be...
...but can it run Google Earth on OSX86 while coding AJAX using Ruby on Rails?
Ron dies in chapter 9 of book 7.
Way cool! We're on Slashdot!
w00t
This story is REALLY taking the piss!
Intel^H^H^H^H^H Urine Inside (tm)
Profit :: So, now the goverment will build its own battery factory and use "OUR" urine to build batteries?! Ok poeple, here's the thing, you either cancel taxes or give us a share of that .. errm .. profit! /.
Obligatory
1) Piss
2) ???
3) Profit!!!
Health :: Dr. Ki Bang Lee, lead researcher, sees a big market for the battery. He argues that it could easily be integrated into biochip systems for "healthcare diagnostic applications"
Uhh, so a someone's faulty heart will be powered by someone else's pee? and that's a healthy approach?
Mod points are a dangerous tool. Abuse them wisely.
Clerk: Duracel or Eveready? Me: I'll take the piss.
Brings new meaning to "We need more power, Scotty!"
Remember how you used to test 9 Volt batteries buy putting your tongue across the contacts... yeah you might not want to try that with this one.
"Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations." -J Von Neumann
It is just a matter of time before Americans ( I am an American ) take this power source for granted and decide they need something like an SUV sized urine powered device. Soon after that we will not have enough domestically produced urine and we will attack some country with a lot of piss but not a lot of users, telling the world we are bringing freedom to them. People who stand up to say maybe we should only use enough things as our own piss can supply will be called hippies, communists and told to mind their own business.
It's inevitable. Now you can have your battery powered purifier. Basically, you can pee in that glass and the coal works will get to work. Think about it, you're out in the dry desert and you can't decide whether you want to pee or drink. Now you can do both!
Full Tilt
I'm surprised more slashdotters don't recognize one of the ways pc board etching is done: the ammonium ions allow the cuprous compounds to be water soluable. Do a googe for "ammonium copper chloride" and "pc etching" and you can see the wonders of how copper ions can dissolve metallic copper and how ammonium ions one way to keep cu+ in solution. The urine supplies ammonium ions.
You know... more electrolytes.
Heh, yet another renewable energy source-- given we don't run out of water. Speaking of water, in the next 20 years its expected to get a lot more expensive. Start saving up now that its cheap :P
Ewww, just thought they would surely
think up of a device recycling your
own "waters"...
Kinda thinking about the Dune saga now.. :P
Well, if you need to think that to make yourself feel better, you go on ahead.