The PEE POWER® project was developed at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) by a group of scientists headed by Cypriot Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, head of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre (BBiC) in the Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
Urine is converted into fuel with the use of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs). The energy generated has been used to provide electricity in poor communities in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa.
For four consecutive years, Ieropoulos and his team showed their project in the famous Glastonbury music festival. At the venue, which this year has attracted around 175,000 visitors, the UK-based, Cypriot born and raised scientist and his team installed public urinals from which urine was collected and converted to electricity using the innovative technology.
In an interview with the Cyprus News Agency, Ieropoulos said the project was welcomed by the fans and the primary goal, which was to raise awareness on alternative energy sources, had been achieved.
]”Yes, we are really pleased and excited. This year we also had the opportunity to get the opinion of the people who used Pee Power in two ways: one was with the touch of a button thanks to the collaboration of two companies that supported us (WhiffAway and Forrester Research) and the second was with a questionnaire. We actually think that our presence at Glastonbury 2019 was a success as 92 per cent of nearly 5,000 people who used the system said they were optimistic about the technology application in places in need,” he said.
The project has travelled to Uganda and Kenya and is currently providing immense benefits to communities and villages where the population is faced with many problems. More recently the technology has been applied in Durban, South Africa and in the near future it the technology will be installed in Ethiopia.
“This is the most satisfying part of our research. The technology is applied in communities that really are in need and it is exciting to see the benefits for the people who use it. It improves their living conditions,” Ieropoulos said.
For example, in Uganda, the technology was applied in an all-girls school to provide toilet lighting to cut down on attacks by men violating security fences and hiding there.
Ieropoulos said he and his team were extremely touched when they were told by the school’s principal that the incidents had been eradicated.
Ιn Nairobi, Kenya, the project was introduced in a mixed primary and secondary school located in one of the slums in the north of the city. The school did not have any toilets in the past. “Now with the help of ACEF, a charity organisation that finances the construction of schools in poor areas, toilets have been set up and our technology is applied. Now there is light inside and outside the toilets,” he added.
More recently, in May 2019, in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu Natal Pollution Research Group, they also installed a Pee Power® system in an informal settlement in Durban, South Africa in a complex of toilets used by the families in the community.
“Now there is light in the evenings, and this has improved their lives and the conditions they used to live in,” he said.
In Ethiopia, the project will be introduced in a refugee camp, with the full support and cooperation of OXFAM. Ieropoulos strongly believes the technology, as well as others, may provide the right background for debate on alternative forms of energy. He explained that there were other technologies, even nature-based solutions.
“So technology really gives us the framework for discussion, especially because it uses natural microbes that purify, or `process`, human waste for the benefit of humans, habitat and the natural environment,” he added.
Source: Cyprus Mail
