Pee Power of Cypriot scientist travels to Kenya

A Cypriot professor is behind a technology that converts urine into electricity that was successfully introduced in Nairobi, Kenya last month.

Professor and scientist Ioannis Ieropoulos is in charge of the PEE POWER® system, a technology developed at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), and he recently came back from a visit to a school in Nairobi where he and his team tested the system’s reliability.

Ieropoulos’ team installed toilets which are lit with the use of power supplied by urine. Cubicles were fitted with stacks of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that are based on microbial metabolism. The live bacteria inside the fuel cells use urine as fuel for their growth and maintenance, but as a bonus for us they produce electricity as a byproduct.

This power is enough to light the exterior of the building including the walkway leading to the toilets. Each toilet cubicle now features motion sensors that turn on when needed.

Ieropoulos told CNA they were in touch with sociologists from the International Water Security Network, who had prepared questionnaires to assist in collecting specific information from the students regarding the project and how it has helped them in everyday life at the boarding school.

The professor also said the school told him that female students feel safe now because there are no male intruders hiding in the toilets trying to attack them. Moreover the students are able to spot potentially dangerous creatures, snakes and spiders, in and around the cubicles’’, he said.