A company has been spun out of the University of the West of England to commercialise technology that converts urine and other types of wastewater into electricity.
Robial, a social enterprise, will advance the innovative 'Pee Power' technology that emerged from a PhD research project at the university 17 years ago.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, EPSRC and the EU, the technology has been successfully trialled at Glastonbury Festival and introduced at schools in Africa with limited access to mains electricity.
The system developed at Bristol Robotics Laboratory can turn organic matter such as urine into enough electricity to power lighting or charge mobile phones. At the same time, it sanitises urine and produces plant fertilizer as a natural by-product.
Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, director of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre at BRL and creator of the technology, said: "Our development of this 100-year old Microbial Fuel Cell technology began in the early 2000s and has advanced along the readiness scale to the point it’s almost ready for the commercial world.
"This means it can now begin to serve society, which is what we set out to do in the first place, and we are now setting up the vehicle for producing volume."
Robial has been formed with the support of Oxentia, a consultancy, helping to develop and grow the potential of the technology, initially within the humanitarian sector and subsequently into other market sectors.
Dr Bruno Reynolds, Senior Consultant at Oxentia, said: "We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with this transformative technology. Professor Ieropoulos and his research team are at the forefront of Microbial Fuel Cell research.
"Robial, as a social enterprise, has the potential to transform the lives of billions who currently do not have access to sewage-networked sanitation. In building a business based on this technology, we expect to attract investors who share our goal of improving the safety and sanitation of billions of people all over the world."