14 DAY TRIAL // A prototype toilet that turns pee into electricity and uses this energy that it itself produces to power lighting devices is now installed near the Student Union Bar at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK.
The toilet's makeup includes so-called microbial fuel cells. Simply put, the installation packs a whole lot of live microbes that, while feeding on urine, produce biochemical energy. It is this energy that the toilet converts into electricity.
Should the prototype toilet set in place in Bristol prove effective at converting pee into electricity, the scientists who developed it imagine such installations being produced on a large scale and shipped to refugee camps all around the world.
The idea is that, thanks to such toilets, people who lack access to a power supply would get to enjoy night lighting and feel safer. Women, who are the ones most likely to be attacked in the dark, would benefit the most.
“Living in a refugee camp is hard enough without the added threat of being assaulted in dark places at night,” said Andy Bastable with international organization Oxfam. “The potential of this invention is huge,” he went on to argue.
The researchers who worked on developing the prototype toilet in Bristol say that, if produced on a large scale, such installations would come with a price tag of just ₤600 ( about €830 / $910).
