A New (very unusual) Way Of Attaining Electricity

I recently came across an article on treehugger about an innovative
invention made by a group of teenage girls in Africa that produces
energy that uses an unusual (kinda gross) ingredient that might somewhat
shock you.... *** drum roll please***.... human urine..... yea i know,
takes recycling to another level...
but it does work perfectly and in fact, a liter of urine can produce
six hours of electricity
Below, I have added a chart showing how their invention actually works:

• Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.


• The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.


• The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.


• This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.

This type of invention can really change the way we look at human waste.
and how it can be recycled to produce energy that we use on a daily basis
This could really be an invention that can become globally innovative and
useful in many households and commercial spaces.
Hopefully the world population will pee enough to meet electrical standards
and demand....

The girls behind the innovative invention

All info and images from: http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/teenage-girls-invent-pee-powered-generator.html

Mushrooms used for insulation?!

Combined with different other materials, mushrooms are the up & coming source for possible building insulation. Eben Bayer combined his knowledge of agriculture of mushrooms with Gavin Maintyre's knowledge in sustainability to make a "Greensulate" mix that is an organic, fire-retardant board made of flour, oyster mushroom spores & perlite (a mineral blend found in potting soil) and water. This type of insulation has been shown to meet the standards of other commercial insulation and it is also cheap to produce.

from:http://designercowboy.blogspot.ca/2008_03_01_archive.html

Eben Bayer & Gavin Maintyre along an example of the mushroom insulation.

In a few years time, this could be one of the products that changes the housing industry since many companies are introducing many sustainable finishes & materials in their projects, this product can also develop a new perspective in not only insulation, but also building materials in general because if we can use something so simple and organic such as mushrooms to make something important (especially for countries that have strong winters) we can develop and figure out ways to use other organic components to fabricate important materials. Although it sounds like a great idea, there is always a glitch in these awesome creations, will the product itself have any issues?, will it economically affect the insulation industry?, will it be cheaper and easier to produce globally? will it be as fast to produce as regular insulation? will this product even turn regular insulation a thing from the past? only time will tell.

All info from: http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/mushroom-spores-the-newest-green-insulation-material.html