No need to jump start your car...just have a couple of beers!

Power of Pee Runs a Battery
Bjorn Carey
LiveScience Staff Writer
Aug 16, 2005

Scientists have developed a way to turn pee into electricity. And there's plenty were that came from, they point out. "We are striving to develop cheap, disposable credit card-sized biochips for disease detection," said battery developer Ki Bang Lee. "Our battery can be easily integrated into such devices, supplying electricity upon contact with biofluids such as urine."

To make the battery, Lee and his team soaked a piece of paper in copper chloride and then sandwiched it between strips of magnesium and copper. Then they laminated the credit card-sized unit between transparent plastic films. When a drop of urine is added to the copper chloride paper, a chemical reaction takes place and produces electricity, which is harnessed by the battery. A few drops will generate about 1.5 volts, the same as a AA battery. The battery needs to be developed further to make it commercially viable.  ¶ 5:39 PM