We have all heard the saying ‘I am dying for a pint’ well now we could be soon bursting to make a pint, after scientists in Belgium have created a solar-powered machine that can create drinkable water out of urine.
The rather strange new invention created by boffins’ at the University of Ghent apparently could now even be used to make beer, according to researchers.
Leading researchers say they have created a device that uses a solar-powered boiler and special membrane to separate the urine into two parts: water and fertiliser, and now having tested the method at a music festival in Ghent, where the team collected 1,000 litres of water in 10 days, they are now looking at using the water to make beer.
“We call it from sewer to brewer,” Sebastiaan Derese, one of the researchers from the University of Ghent, told Reuters. “We’re able to recover fertiliser and drinking water from urine using just a simple process and solar energy.”
To purify the urine, the researchers first collect it in a tank and heat it using a solar-powered boiler. As the water evaporates it passes through the membrane, which separates it from nutrients found in urine and useful as a fertiliser, such as nitrogen and phosphorous.
Although the water generated by the machine is drinkable, the researchers plan to make beer out of the 1,000 litres generated at the music festival.
The researchers say they plan to install more purification machines at shopping centres, sporting arenas and airports, with the ultimate goal to bring clean water to rural areas and developing countries.