"Will combat vehicles use urine for fuel?" Topic

A U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) team at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland believes it has discovered a way to use urine to provide power.

link

only on Monday mornings

Amazing, isn't it, Bill! A while before it can be made practical, but the technology is now proven.

We're hoping that the best urine for power generation will be that produced after drinking beer!

I can already see the patriotic donation drives now. I get a little squeamish when giving blood, but this would be a whiz.

Life imitating art, from Blackadder (Potato):

Melchett: Sir Walter Raleigh's death warrant for your signature,
Majesty.

Queen: [with quill pen at the ready] Oh. Good. Any news of Edmund?

Melchett: [smugly] Well, Madam, if they're on course, they should be
nearing the urine-drinking stage by now.

Queen: Don't be horrid, Melchy. Edmund would rather die!

Melchett: I fear that may be wishful thinking, Majesty. [He blows
the ink dry on Raleigh's death warrant]

--------------------

[scene change: Edmund is passed out or sleeping at the
galley table. A knock comes at the door]

Edmund: Enter. [Baldrick and Percy come in, carrying bottles. Edmund
sits up and we see he that his face is tired and drawn] So soon?

Percy: You said today. [They set the bottles on the table]

Edmund: Yes, well, I'm not feeling very thirsty at the moment.
I had an egg-cup full of stagnant water three weeks ago…
Oh all right, come on, let's get on with it. [He stands up]

Baldrick: Should we drink each other's or stick to our own?

Edmund: Is Captain Rum joining us for this bring-a-sample party,
or is he going to sit this one out?

Percy: Oh no, he's been swigging his for ages. He says he likes it.
Actually, come to think of it, he started before the water
ran out.

Edmund: Oh, God. [Resigned] Well, let's get on with it.

[Caption appears,

"Ten Minutes Later"

Then, we see the three of them with their backs to
the camera and their hands apparently in front of them]

Edmund: It's always the same, isn't it; you get all keyed up and
then you can't go.

Baldrick: I've done two bottles [He turns around and places two
full bottles on the table]

Blackadder: All right, then; pour it out. [Laments] That it should come
to this, drinking Baldrick's water. [He holds out a mug and
Baldrick begins to pour]

Baldrick: Say when. [Blackadder says "When" almost immediately. Baldrick
clinks bottles with Percy, in a toast, "Down the hatch".

Bonvi was an Italian comic book artist who created a series called "Sturmtruppen" an absurdist comedy about the military, one of the recurring gags was a tank crewmember urinating in the tank fuel tank.

Chortle.

Speaking as a defrocked chemist, I can assure you that extracting hydrogen from water is a piece of cake. Urine is 99% water, so I doubt that urine is absolutely required.

You had better keep the troops well hydrated then.

Takes more energy to crack water into hydrogen and oxygen than you get back out from burning hydrogen.

Pee is more useful for emergency cooling of weapons.

I woke up one morning to the sound of my buddy pissing on one of the road wheels of our M577 (command track, modified M113). Moments later, the new fire direction officer, a second lieutenant, turned the corner and noticed what appeared to him to be a leaking road wheel hub. He told my buddy, the driver, to check that hub for leaks. I almost gagged trying to keep quiet. Apparently, urine can also be used as a lubricant.

pjm

The Romans used urine as detergent.

@Bill: Yup, let it sit for long enough to break down to ammonia, you can use it to make white leather, too.