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

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

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


Authors

Andrew Stinchcombe

Yannis Ieropoulos Ioannis2.Ieropoulos@uwe.ac.uk
Professor in Bioenergy & Director of B-B



Abstract

© 2016 The Authors 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.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 8, 2016
Online Publication Date Jun 18, 2016
Publication Date Jan 1, 2017
Deposit Date Jun 13, 2016
Publicly Available Date Jun 23, 2016
Journal Applied Energy
Print ISSN 0306-2619
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 192
Pages 575-581
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.06.006
Keywords phone-charging system, membrane-less MFCs, energy management, sustainable energy
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/889215
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.06.006
Contract Date Jun 13, 2016

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