Project Information

Project Purpose

Urine is an unsterile, nutrient-rich resource that can be used to fertilize plants. Human urine contains high quantities of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. Though urine is unsterile, it does not contain the same hazards, bacterial pathogens, which exist in the solid waste. Separating urine from solid waste is an effective approach to recover nutrients. Exploiting the benefits of urine is a good way of "closing the cycle" in agriculture nutrient flows. This system could also possibly reduce sewage costs and ecological consequences, as well as improve sanitation in developing areas. This project focuses on the nitrogen recovery from liquid waste as a laboratory model intended for future applications implemented on a household scale. Liquid waste is mostly in the form of ammonia species and must be oxidized to nitrate before plants can take it up through their root systems. Nitrogen compounds are reduced and are sequentially oxidized to nitrite and nitrate by nitrifying bacteria through the nitrification process. The main purpose of the nitrification column is to convert nitrogen compounds in urine (Ammonia) to a form that can be used by plants directly. The nitrification column provides suitable growth and living conditions for the bacteria involved in the process of nitrification. The systemwill also have a nitrate solution dispersal system to provide the ability to utilize the solution on plants.