Sustainable Innovation: Pee Powered Energy- Kellee Marlow & Ioannis Ieropoulos

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SUMMARY

What if your urine had the ability to be sourced as a fuel to provide electricity? It is what Pee Power technology has accomplished through its innovation of microbial fuel cells that channel urine through to create clean and sustainable energy. Kellee talks with Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, the innovator of Pee Power about the potential of this clean energy source.

GUEST NOTES

Ioannis Ieropoulos is the Professor of Bioenergy and Self-Sustainable Systems and Director of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre, at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of West England. He focuses on waste utilization and energy autonomy. Professor Ieropoulos produced the EcoBot family of robots, which are powered by microbial fuel cells (MFCs) fed on organic waste, with the latest self-sustainable robot, Row-bot.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the grantor of the "Urine-tricity/Pee Power" project, which is advancing the MFC technology for Developing World Countries. Pee Power has been used to provide lighting for toilet blocs at schools in Uganda and Kenya. In addition to these installations, the technology can be installed in refugee camps, slums and places where there is no or limited access to an energy source. Pee Power applications are evolving with continuing research. It plans to be proofed on a commercial scale. This clean energy innovation has been featured in leading media outlets including the Economist, BBC Future, Science Daily, Reuters and Washington Post.

WHAT IS SPARK?

Spark, hosted by Kellee Marlow, on KXSF.FM in San Francisco, focuses on curated conversations with change-leaders and influencers- to inform minds, inspire ideas and ignite innovation. Basically, conversations that enable us to transcend beyond what we believe we are capable of.