ZeroFuel Car Uses Pee For Hydrogen Power
Picture this; you’re driving down some long, flat, dusty road on your way to the Middle of Nowhere when your car suddenly runs out of fuel. You haven’t passed a fuel station in a hundred miles, and you’re at least half as far from your destination still. Well what if you could just get out of your car, unzip your fly (at least for us lads) and fill your car up with your bodies own natural emissions?
Sounds pretty science fiction and maybe even a little gross. But that is the idea behind at least one entrant’s car in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize, an international challenge for alternative, super-fuel-efficient vehicles. A pee-powered car? Well, why not.
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Steven Amendola, a word-reknowned chemist with a long list of publications, accomplishments, and patents is the man behind ZeroFuel. Being developed by his company, Alternative Fuel Sciences, the concept could revolutionize the way we get from point A to B using just P (I couldn’t resist). The idea is centered around the fact that there is a lot of ammonia (NH3) in urea, and within that ammonia is plenty of hydrogen. As we already know, hydrogen can be used for propulsion with existing technology, the biggest problem is the infrastructure. Urea is basically just human urine and it is usually just flushed down the toilet (though it is often used as a fertilizer due to its high nitrogen content). ZeroFuel latches on to the idea that if we can harness the hydrogen components in urea, if would make an effective, sustainable, and easily transportable alt-fuel.
So how does pee become power? Keeping in mind I am but a humble writer and not chemist, ZeroFuel is a mixture of water and carbamide, or urea. Then the ammonia and hydrogen are seperated and injected into the engine. The only emissions are water vapor and nitrogen, the must abundent element in our atmosphere already. The car relies on existing technology to make the process happen, and it can be used on just about any engine.
Who knows, maybe one day gas stations will be but a distant memory, and we’ll all just fill our cars up from home. ZeroFuel also has in the works a home refilling station; I’d like to see the government tax that!
Soure: ZeroFuel
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June 23rd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I love this idea. The only thing to add would be a collection system for the water vapor so the driver could replenish their fluids. This could almost be a perpetual process!
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Might have to drink a lot of beer to go from LA to Portland!
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
I’m not a chemist either but isn’t there Hydrogen in water? Is there something special about P that makes it easier to separate the H from P when separating H from O is so hard?
June 24th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
The key part of the story is missing. Are there any other inputs?
June 29th, 2009 at 5:18 am
I am a student only but i have an aim to seperate ammonia from fouls fecalmatter (uric acid) but its too for me
try to use that one its better to environment
July 6th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Urine’s major constituent is urea, which incorporates four hydrogen atoms per molecule — importantly, less tightly bonded than the hydrogen atoms in water molecules.
Botte uses electrolysis to break the molecule apart, developing an inexpensive nickel-based electrode to efficiently oxidise the urea.
To break the molecule down, a voltage of 0.37V needs to be applied across the cell, which is much less than the 1.23V needed to split water.
“During the electrochemical process the urea gets adsorbed on to the nickel electrode surface, which passes the electrons needed to break up the molecule,” Botte told Chemistry World journal.
July 14th, 2009 at 1:25 am
Why is Zerofuel not listed on the xprize entrants list?
http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org/teams/
July 14th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
sounds like we should be buying some portapotties!
July 14th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I’m not trying to plagerize, but I found this and thought it might answer questions. This is where i got the info:
Written by Nick Chambers, Editor
Published on July 6th, 2009
Source: Royal Society of Chemistry
found at this website:
http://gas2.org/2009/07/06/urine-the-hydrogen-fuel-of-the-future/
People have known for a long time that you can generate hydrogen easily by running a current through water to split it into its component parts — oxygen and hydrogen — using a process called electrolysis. The problem is that the amount of energy needed to split the water is relatively large and the materials required are very expensive (although last year some MIT scientists created a brand new cheap catalyst that they say changes all that).
Urine to the rescue. Now some researchers at Ohio University have found that urine makes a much better starting point for generating hydrogen than water. The hydrogen found in urine is bonded much more loosely than in water. So loose, in fact, that by using simple and cheap materials hydrogen can be generated from urine using 1/3 of the voltage needed to make hydrogen from water.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Verde,
The chemical bonds in urine are much looser than the chemical bonds in water. Thus, only 1/3 of the electricity needed for water -> hydrogen is needed for urine -> hydrogen.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
To Verde:
Urine to the rescue. Now some researchers at Ohio University have found that urine makes a much better starting point for generating hydrogen than water. The hydrogen found in urine is bonded much more loosely than in water. So loose, in fact, that by using simple and cheap materials, hydrogen can be generated from urine using 1/3 of the voltage needed to make hydrogen from water.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
power 2 the peeeeeeee- poles
July 15th, 2009 at 12:07 am
So for how can this thing actaully run on Pee?
July 15th, 2009 at 12:13 am
When are we going to shit in our gas tanks?
July 15th, 2009 at 2:07 am
well, actualy in water you need a high amount of Voltages to sperate the hydrogen. where as Pee has hydrogen, and its very very lose (meaning its bonds are weak) their for the processes of electorsys to spereate the hydrogen requires 1/3 less voltages and beacuse it has weak bonds the other materials required to make this processes work, are ALOT less expensive than those catalsyst used with water
kthnx by!
July 15th, 2009 at 6:43 am
@Jim Takchess
Zerofuel is on the x prize entrants list but not under the name Zerofuel.
ALTERNATIVE FUEL SCIENCES
Connecticut (USA)
Vehicle Name: ZF1, ZF2, ZF3
Fuel Type: ZeroFuel ammonia and hydrogen on demand
Class: Mainstream, Alternative, Alternative
July 15th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Nothing new here, there was a guy in Canada running his 1981 Chevrolet Impala on anhydrous in the 80’s…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vwmzkn0paM
Hybrids, Hydrogen fuel, non of this is new, its all been thought of before.
July 16th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Verde asked about using hydrogen from water, rather from urine. Im not chemist either but the problem is the hydrogen in water is bonded much more closely so they need to use a higher amoung of energy to extract the hydrogen. With urine, they only need a third of the power to remove the hyrdrogen that you would need with water. Its interesting to note that they have had batter tech. that runs on urine for some time, however no one has made any commercially.
July 21st, 2009 at 12:44 pm
just think of the revenue stream for the big dairy farms! collection bags for urine that are emptied when they are milked!
October 26th, 2009 at 6:07 am
The function of urea is to eliminate excess Nitrogen from our bodies. The amount produced is proportional to the amount consumed primarily in the form of meat. Cows can get it from plants and they produce a lot of urine!