Lagos — It’s ironic that Nigeria, Africa's leading
oil producer, suffers from frequent fuel and power shortages. But four school
girls have found a solution from an unlikely source: urine.
Most Nigerians have to rely on generators because of
the epileptic power supply. Many businesses have also closed down because they
cannot afford to buy expensive fuel from the black market to power their
generators. Faced with this problem, four teenagers from the
Doregos Private Academy School in Lagos developed a generator powered by urine.
"We noticed that many Nigerian businesses
depend on a power supply have virtually been put out of business because of the
high cost of power, so we decided to make a device that will reduce this
problem. We noticed that waste products can be used to generate energy that is
why we decided to experiment on urine," said Eniola Bello, one of the
students.
The generator is powered by hydrogen and oxygen formed
from urine stored in a compartment attached to the generator.
Adebola Duro-Aina, another student, said six litres
of urine can power the small generator for 36 hours.
"This urine is being electrolysed, releasing
hydrogen and oxygen gas, and this then goes into our gas tank. Our gas tank
here stores the gases, and anytime we need the gas we can open up the gas tank
and release the gas and our generator is powered."
When the girls power up the generator, the light
bulbs in the room lit up.
"The generator powers everything in the
house," one of the girls said. "We were so excited, we were so happy
once the generator started working."
The girls say they were frustrated with growing up
in an environment where they cannot read at night or watch their favourite television
program because of the irregular power supply. The invention of this urine
powered generator comes at a time when the Nigerian government is under
increasing pressure to address the country's electricity problems.
Source: rfi news. By Sam Olukoya
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