Recycling astronaut urine for energy and drinking water

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140409103409.htm

Ew! That sounds disgusting. It did to me once I read the title of this article. Instead of just releasing the astronaut pee in the unknown space, why not reuse it for a better need? Scientists are trying to develop a way to reuse space urine for drinking water. Collecting urine, and shower waste water and process it using forward osmosis. This filters the the garbage in the urine. Their new Urea Bioreactor Electrochemical system (UBE) efficiently converted the urea into ammonia in its bioreactor, and then turned the ammonia into energy

 with its fuel cell. The system was designed with space missions 

in mind, but "the results showed that the 

UBE system could be used in any wastewater treatment systems containing urea and/or ammonia,"