British researchers are looking for a way to turn urine into fuel.

They have spent three years developing EcoBott-III, a robot that can power itself by digesting waste.

Now they're hoping to find a way to use urine in microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which use bacterial cultures to break down "food" to create power.

“Over the years we have fed our MFCs with rotten fruit, grass clippings, prawn shells and dead flies in an attempt to investigate different waste materials to use as a ‘food source’ for the Microbial Fuel Cells. We have focused on finding the best waste materials that create the most energy," researcher Dr. Ioannis Ieropoulos said in a release.

"Urine is chemically very active, rich in nitrogen and has compounds such as urea, chloride, potassium and bilirubin, which make it very good for the microbial fuel cells. We have already done preliminary tests which show it being a waste material that is very effective," he added. "Although it is early days for this research, we hope to work towards producing a prototype portable urinal which would use urine to create power from fuel cells. We envisage that this could be used for example at music festivals and other outdoor events.”