Powering Spacecraft with Urine

Apr-15-14 NASA researchers have a developed a method of turning urine into usable fuel—which could have applications both on spacecraft and here on earth.

The team based their method on previous research that had shown that forward osmosis could be used in combination with a fuel cell to generate power. Urine and shower wastewater were collected and processed using forward osmosis, which filtered out the contaminants from the urea. Then, using their newly-designed Urea Bioreactor Electrochemical system (UBE), the team converted the extracted urea into ammonia able to power a fuel cell.

Although the system was originally designed for space travel, the team believes "the UBE system could be used in any wastewater treatment systems containing urea and/or ammonia.”

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