If the latest experiment by the Delhi civic authorities comes off, then taking a leak would garner some respect. Delhi, the region which houses India’s capital (New Delhi) has embarked on a ‘pee-worthy’ project to generate power from urine.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is attempting to design a system that will convert urine collected from its public urinals into power. Experts from the United States have been roped in for the feasibility study and further development. The system envisages collecting urine from a public system of waterless urinals (ceramic bowls containing paltry water and bio-degradable chemicals in a cartridge). This will be channelized to a processing plant where microbial breakdown will take place giving hydrogen and water. The water cleaned by reverse osmosis will be reused for industrial processes while the hydrogen will be used to generate power.
 
Waterless urinals have been set up in two places so far. A 1,000 such kiosks are planned. The deadline is the Commonwealth Games 2010. Preliminary estimates made by Karan Aneja and Siddhartha Saha, engineering graduate duo from University of California, Berkeley calculate that over 20,000 KW power can be generated from these 1,000 kiosks from 20,000 liters of urine. They have started a pilot project in Delhi.

Karan Aneja says,

“From one liter of urine, we will be able to produce 1 KW of power. We started work on this concept two years ago. Billboards installed around these toilets will be lit up from the power produced through this process.''

Though the project is innovative and with tremendous civic potential, doubts have been raised. Skeptics question the estimates but more than that it is the track record of the authorities that is a cause of worry.

Experts say that a projection of 1 KW of power from one liter of urine is off the mark. Also the process of breaking down the urine could be time consuming in itself. Karan Aneja vouches that it takes only 19 seconds.

Dismissing the efficiency concern, officials say that the project is on course. An official said,

"The waterless toilets help save water besides taking care of the problem of foul smell. The area around it will also be well-maintained after the power plants come up.''

Image: tobym