Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren Bogle bomb here. The lights in portable bathrooms can now be powered with p a transformation that has far reaching implications for sanitation and developing countries with limited electricity. The development could also advance safety and refugee camps, where a nightly walk to the bathroom can be dangerous in
the dark. Spanish researchers at the University of the West of England have devised a way for urine and bacteria to react and generate enough energy to light led tubes. Researcher Irene Marino said in a press release. The technology in the prototype is based on microbial fuel cells. Marino and her colleagues detailed their findings in the journal Environmental Science,
Water Research and Technology. Basically, the microbial fuel cells act like batteries with a positively charged anode and a negatively charged cathode. When the microbial fuel cells are installed inside a year urnal bacterial grow on the anode electrode. These bacteria then begin to decompose the organic material in urine,
launching a metabolic process that releases protons and electrons. The protons move across a semipermeable membrane from the anode to the cathode and meet up with electrons traveling through an external electrical circuit. A complex electrochemical process called an oxygen reduction reaction in the cathode then completes the cycle and while ah electricity from urine. The journal article presents the
results of two recent successful field tests. One of the large scale tests included public urinal cubicles at Glastonbury Festival, the UK's biggest music fest. The urnals were used by thousands and generated enough electricity about three hundred milliwatts to light the cubicle's interior led tubes. Another urinal field test showed promising results on the University of the West of
England's campus. This prototype generated about seventy five milliwatts. The researchers are now working with a nonprofit organization to test the urinals at refugee camps and in public toilets currently without lighting. A prototype with a design for female users is also in the works. The hope is to light toilets and possibly even the surrounding area in regions that use communal toilets outside of homes, which in the dark present safety concerns, and this isn't the only P technology
in the works. The company nature Commode, for example, is exploring ways to recycle urine from public toilets into fast acting fertilizers for farmers. The treated urine is high in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients that plants can readily absorb. Today's episode was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other P powered topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.