Fresh water is essential for life and commerce. However, its scarcity is resulting in increased regulation of water resources and their corollary, wastewater. This blog will discuss developments in such regulation. It will be my clepsydra measured by the flow of water law.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
GOING PLACES WITH WATER
According to a recent report, astronauts' urination may enable them to go boldly where no human has gone before.* As space travel pushes toward new frontiers, researchers on earth are exploring potential new uses for the travelers' human waste, such as urine.
In particular, research is focusing on the urea bioelectrochemical system which uses "forward osmosis" to treat urine. According to the research, this system removes urea and converts it to ammonia. In turn, the ammonia is used as fuel in a direct solid alkaline fuel cell system to generate electrical energy.
The report indicates that this process has the potential for recycling urine into drinking water (with the addition of reverse osmosis) as well as electricity. Research is ongoing, and one of the issues yet to be resolved is developing a system that works under zero-gravity conditions found in space.
Who knows--maybe at some point in the distant future people on the go will travel in space in ships propelled by electricity generated by their own urine, illustrating another beneficial use, and need, for water.
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*"Waste Not, Want Not",WE&T Magazine
July,2014, p. 21
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