英国科学家首次成功用尿液给手机供电_BEC初级作文

英国科学家首次成功用尿液给手机供电

Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos, an expert at harnessing power from unusual sources using microbial fuel cells at the University of West England, Bristol, which was also involved in the research, said the urine-powered phone is a 'world first'.

'No-one has harnessed power from urine so it’s an exciting discovery.

'Using the ultimate waste product as a source of power to produce electricity is about as eco as it gets.

'One product that we can be sure of an unending supply is our own urine.

'By harnessing this power as urine passes through a cascade of MFCs, we have managed to charge a Samsung mobile phone.

He believes that the reliability of the fuel source is a big selling point.

Dr Ieropoulos said: 'Essentially, the electricity is a by-product of the microbes’ natural life cycle, so the more they eat things like urine, the more energy they generate and for longer periods of time.'

The electricity output of MFCs is relatively small and the researchers are currently only been able to store and accumulate low levels of energy into capacitors for short charge and discharge cycles.

However they claim that this is the first time that scientists have been able to directly charge the battery of a device such as a mobile phone and it should be seen as a significant breakthrough.

They believe that their research, which was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Gates Foundation and the Technology Strategy Board, has the potential to be installed in bathrooms.