LONDON -- Students at a British university are creating urine-tricity.
A prototype toilet, which uses microbial fuel stacks, has recently been installed at the University of the West of England in Bristol. Cleverly located outside the student bar, it generates electricity as microbes feed on urine for their growth.
"This technology is about as green as it gets, as we do not need to utilise fossil fuels and we are effectively using a waste product that will be in plentiful supply,” Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, director of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre said.
The electricity is used to power a light in the toilet, which is a joint initiative between the university and aid agency Oxfam. The goal is to roll pee-powered toilets out to refugee camps in disaster zones where unlit toilets leave people at risk of being abused or attacked.
"If we could light up the area around the toilets, it would make it safer for them to go to the toilet," Andy Bastable, Head of Water and Sanitation at Oxfam said.
If the trial is successful it could be a "game changer" and would likely used in many situations in the developing world where electricity isn't available by Oxfam and other agencies, he said.
It's not the first time Bristol has turned human waste into energy. Last year, a bus began running between Bristol and Bath using human poop. The vehicle can travel up to 300 km (186 miles) on a tank of gas, made from the annual waste of four people.