"Soldiers in the field could carry their own fuel."
That's gotta be the quote of the century.
The idea is that it's easier (in terms of energy required) to release hydrogen atoms from urine than it is to release it from water. So if this technology could be commercialized, we'd need to re-design our toilets a bit so that the pee is redirected to a holding tank where it can be processed by one of these units and turned into electricity. I assume that the electricity required to release the hydrogen is less than the energy produced in the fuel cell, which is not true of the electricity required to release hydrogen from water, but the article doesn't make that clear.
It's totally brilliant, but I'd hate to be the technician who has to service the units...