UK Scientists Create Socks With Urine That Can Connect With Computers - Researchers from the U.K. say they’ve created
socks with miniaturized microbial fuel cells, and it can communicate
with computers.
In the midst of the march towards the not-too-distant “internet of
things” future, scientists at University of the West of England in
Bristol, U.K. announced Friday that they’ve developed a pair of
socks with miniaturized microbial fuel cell technology, allowing it to
send energy to a wireless transmitter that can communicate with
computers.
First reported by New Scientist, researchers at Bristol published a study in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics on Thursday announcing the creation of the world’s first self-sufficient wearable socks.
Lead researcher Ioannis Ieropoulos, a professor at the University of
the West of England’s Bristol BioEnergy Centre says their urine-powered
socks was inspired by mobile phones (more about this tech below) powered
by the bladder fluid. He also added that the main aim of their research
is to create a system that is self sufficient, running only on free
power provided by the human body.
The socks use urine as its only fuel, and the action of the foot (while walking or running) as its pump.
Professor Ieropoulos says this study could lead to creation of handhelds and other devices that will use waste as power source.
The pair of socks use MFC bacteria to generate electricity from human
body’s waste fluids. MFCs tap into the biochemical energy used for
microbial growth and convert it into electricity.
According to researchers, they have placed soft MFCs within the pair
of socks, and supplied them with fresh human urine. Normally,
continuous-flow MFCs would rely on a main pump to circulate the fluid
waste over it, but these socks rely solely on human activity, as in
walking.
Soft tubes were placed under the heels of the socks, and they ensure frequent urine push-pull while walking, study authors add.
The manual pump of the pair of socks was based on a simple fish
circulatory system, and the action of walking caused the urine to pass
over the MFCs, allowing it to generate free energy.
Using urine as renewable energy source, or what BBC
calls “pee-power”, is not an entirely new concept. In 2014, the
aforementioned British news agency published an article about the study
discussing the MFC-powered mobile phones. The platform uses human urine
to create energy allowing the device to send messages, initiate short
phone calls, and even surf the web.
Authors of the pee-powered mobile phones (also the authors of the urine-powered socks) believe that in the future, human urine could power homes, buildings, and even a whole village.
“Turning waste into something really really useful” is the main goal
of the mobile phone-powered urine research says Ieropoulos in a video
presentation published last year.
“The microbial fuel cells technology is something that does exactly
that. It takes the waste that we naturally produce, and it converts it
directly into electricity,” Professor Ieropoulos added. Source: StGist
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar