Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Pee Power: Turning Wastewater into Electricity
From Ohio University Office of Research Communications
An innovative new venture has set out to basically turn urine into electricity.
E3 Technologies, LLC, will develop an Ohio University invention called the “GreenBox” designed to clean commercial and agricultural wastewater and produce hydrogen energy—a technology that’s been described as “pee power.”
Through a patented low-energy electrolysis process, the “GreenBox” converts ammonia and urea in wastewater to hydrogen, nitrogen and pure water. The electric current in the device creates an electrochemical reaction that oxidizes urea and turns it into carbon dioxide, which is then sequestered in the electrolyte material in the machine. The box also produces hydrogen energy.
Ohio University faculty inventor of the technology, Gerardine Botte, is a new tenant in the Innovation Center, the university’s small high-tech business incubator.
Urea electrolysis also could be used as an extremely efficient process for producing ammonia for selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions, he added.
The technology also could help a wide variety of industries—from the military and agriculture to wastewater treatment operations and commercial construction companies—deal with the disposal of ammonia.
Read the full article here.
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