Urine transduction to usable energy: A modular MFC approach for smartphone and remote system charging

Xavier Alexis Walter, Andrew Stinchcombe, John Greenman and Ioannis Ieropoulos

Applied Energy, 2017, vol. 192, issue C, 575-581

Abstract: This study reports for the first time the full charging of a state-of-the-art mobile smartphone, using Microbial Fuel Cells fed with urine. This was possible by employing a new design of MFC that allowed scaling-up without power density losses. Although it was demonstrated in the past that a basic mobile phone could be charged by MFCs, the present study goes beyond this to show how, simply using urine, an MFC system successfully charges a modern-day smartphone. Several energy-harvesting systems have been tested and results have demonstrated that the charging circuitry of commercially available phones may consume up to 38% of energy on top of the battery capacity. The study concludes by developing a mobile phone charger based on urine, which results in 3h of phone operation (outgoing call) for every 6h of charge time, with as little as 600mL (per charge) of real neat urine.

Keywords: Phone-charging system; Membrane-less MFCs; Energy management; Sustainable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:192:y:2017:i:c:p:575-581

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.06.006

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