Urine transduction to usable energy: A modular MFC approach for smartphone and remote system charging

•1st application of a MFC design that can be scaled-up without power-density losses.•1st full charge of a basic phone within 42 and 68 h employing neat urine as MFC-fuel.•1st full charge of smartphone within 68 and 82 h employing neat urine as MFC-fuel.•1st charging system allowing 1 h 45 min phone call per 3 h of charge.

This study reports for the first time the full charging of a state-of-the-art mobile smartphone, using Microbial Fuel Cells fed with urine. This was possible by employing a new design of MFC that allowed scaling-up without power density losses. Although it was demonstrated in the past that a basic mobile phone could be charged by MFCs, the present study goes beyond this to show how, simply using urine, an MFC system successfully charges a modern-day smartphone. Several energy-harvesting systems have been tested and results have demonstrated that the charging circuitry of commercially available phones may consume up to 38% of energy on top of the battery capacity. The study concludes by developing a mobile phone charger based on urine, which results in 3 h of phone operation (outgoing call) for every 6 h of charge time, with as little as 600 mL (per charge) of real neat urine.

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