Urine – OhNo. Urine – OhYes!
I confess, this goofy looking guy is me holding the door open at the 2010 Clearwater Festival, while a very good natured friend snapped the pic, and those waiting to get in thought god knows what.
As global warming, honey bees, AIDS, Darfur, global economic crash, and ocean oil leaks, present dramatic and dynamic challenges to human health, so does nitrogen use. And urine must eventually become part of any…solution.
Keeping this simple – nitrogen, an element, is in the air we breath, but we humans don’t use it that way. Plants need it for growth (in compound form), and large-scale industrial farming obtains the necessary nitrogen by manufacturing it using hydrocarbons, either oil or gas.
Problems with this, besides relying on these sources of fuel are several. So-called chemical fertilizers give plants much but not all of what they can use, and using fertilizer from a container, rather than via natural sources like composting with earthworms and plantings like Alfalfa makes it much easier to over fertilize – it’s labor-intensive if you keep coming back with other (small) doses, vs. compost and plantings that mature over time and integrate into the soil more effectively.
The main problem with overdosing plants with nitrogen-rich fertilizers is the runoff into ground water, and the leaching into air of N2O (nitrous oxide). The polluted water can and does run into lakes and oceans, causing plant life to increase growth, and when they die, to use much of the oxygen in the water as the plants decay (oxygenation). In the air, it attacks ozone.
To review: nitrogen – necessary for plant growth, a major component of manufactured chemical fertilizer (industry lobby association), a major cause of ocean and lake dead zones, a source of air pollution, greenhouse gasses, and ozone depletion).
Urine – has a lot of usable nitrogen (one small example), and is often removed from the biological loop contributing to pollution. Except in Sweden. (Many other examples in case the above link disappears)
2005 thesis, Urine processing for efficient nutrient recovery and reuse in agriculture, from which this drawing is taken.
Original source material testing safety from pathogens.
Example of Swedish-made urine separation toilet:
Above drawing taken from a Swedish manufacturer user manual – I don’t think any “double entendre” was intended (“Funny,” putting the words double entendre in quotes, don’t you think? And this in parentheses!).
How to use urine thereby killing two birds with one… Anyway, first, collect it. Then save it for a while, how long depends on reaching a temperature that will kill off any remaining pathogens. Next, apply it to plants – this will require some research as one would not want to overuse thereby contributing to the problem one is trying to avoid – overuse of nitrogen.
In terms of large-scale utilization, it’s the collection and processing (holding in tanks at a high enough temperature to assure sterility) that needs to be worked out. One place to begin, that would not require modification of housing infrastructure, would be utiliation of portable out houses.
These collection devices only need the addition of a second tank. From there, processing and dissemination issues could be worked out – in the U.S., at least it would be a start. Perhaps a subject for another time.
