IIT-Palakkad researchers come up with power, biofertiliser from human urine

Installing Osmotic Urine Fuel Cells (osUFC) at the source of urinal generation (toilets), the researchers said they could generate electricity power and bio-fertilizers following a few steps of the process.

Sangareddy: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Palakkad (IIT-P) have come up with an innovation to generate renewable energy out of human urine. Installing Osmotic Urine Fuel Cells (osUFC) at the source of urinal generation (toilets), the researchers said they could generate electricity power and bio-fertilizers following a few steps of the process. The team, which exhibited their project during IInvenTive-2024 at IIT-Hyderabad, said the idea was ready for commercialisation.

The team, headed by Dr Praveena Gangadharan, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Sustained Energy Centre at IIT-P, developed the urine-fed self-driven stacked electrochemical resource recovery reactor for smartphone charging and biofertiliser production.

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Speaking to Telangana Today, Dr Praveena said they developed a system to derive nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus from it. The biofertiliser can be used in the fertigation of crops that eventually restrict the use of chemical fertilisers. The system would also generate power which can utilised for local needs. About 7.5 litres of urine can generate 400 milliwatts of power. Over 1.06 million tonnes of nitrogen, 0.177 million units of potassium, and 0.52 million tonnes of phosphorous can be derived per day by installing these systems at all the toiles in India. Since the urine at the source is being treated as part of the system the drains will be free of any algae.

The other members of the team were Research Scholar V Sangeetha, Project Scientist PM Sreejith, and Research Associate Rinu Anna Koshy.