My name is Natnael Girma, I’m a Ph.D. student from Ethiopia. I’m currently working on a research project on safe nutrient recovery from source separated urine for sustainable fertilizer production. I recently joined the energy and technology department (kretsloppsteknik unit) at SLU, as a licentiate student to do my research project. The project focuses on assessing adsorptive characteristics of pharmaceuticals during the production of urine-based fertilizers and the fate of pharmaceuticals during their end-use in agriculture. The second part of the research focuses on the microbial safety of using dry urine-based fertilizers in perspective of abundance of horizontally transmissible antibiotic resistant gene element.
In October 2019, Jenna Senecal travelled to Arles, France, to connect with Nick Davies from peeKeep. Nick has designed a new toilet and cabin and wanted to test how our alkaline dehydration technology could be integrated. The toilet uses a conveyer belt to transport the excreta and toilet paper to a drying chamber outside (the black PVC unit). While the urine is drained and collected for alkaline treatment (the black and grey sheet metal box). Nick will be building more of these toilets to be installed in various locations in southern France. The aim is to have all systems (light inside the cabin, toilet, excreta treatment) running off of solar voltaics.
The master thesis, Technical Evaluation of Urine Drying in Pilot Scale – a Field Experiment in Finland (author Caroline Karlsson), is now published at the DiVA portal. In this interesting master project the urine drying technology was tested for the first time in field conditions at a military base in southwestern Finland. For more information: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:1374211
Phosphorus has long
been the highest priority when recovering plant nutrients from sewage. However,
nitrogen should be given top priority according to a new evaluation of criteria
linked to the use of non-renewable resources, vulnerability, and potentially
reduced climate impact.
When prioritizing recovery from wastewater, phosphorus often
emphasised as it is necessary for all life and as it is stated to soon run out
(Peak phosphorus). There is reason to question this one-sided emphasis on
phosphorus. The report “Phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium and sulphur – access,
vulnerability and recovery from wastewater” reviews a) risks linked to the
production of artificial fertilizers from non-renewable resources; b) the
vulnerability of Swedish plant production to blocked import of artificial
fertilizers; and c) potentially reduced climate impact in the recovery of plant
nutrients from wastewater.
All investigated criteria show that the recovery of nitrogen from wastewater should be given highest prioritized, and significantly higher than the recovery of both phosphorus and potassium. According to its directives, the presently working governmental investigation on sewage sludge is obliged to submit a proposal focused on recycling of phosphorus from sewage sludge by 10 January 2020. The risk is obvious that the wastewater sector will be forced to devote considerable resources to phosphorus recovery, resources that should be invested in nitrogen recovery to best contribute towards increased sustainability for both the wastewater system and the entire food system.
For more information, read the report: Fosfor, kväve, kalium och svavel – tillgång, sårbarhet och återvinning från avlopp. Download from: https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/16407/
Björn demonstrates how to use a PeePoo toilet during his lecture
Earlier this week, a few members of Kretsloppsteknik hosted a group of SIDA’s International Training Programme participants in Uppsala. NIRAS on behalf of SIDA implements a number of International Training Programmes. Kretsloppsteknik is involved as part of this program through NIRAS with focus on participants from both Asian and African countries. During these visits, we teach, present, and do technology demonstration through field visits talking about safe nutrient recycling, source-separating sanitation systems, management of organic wastes, socio-technical systems analysis, etc.
Last week, Björn, Jenna and Prithvi were in Visby, on the Island of Gotland to meet with Daniel Freeman from Science Park Gotland (SPG), an organisation that supports new businesses in Gotland to take the next step. We are happy to share that we came to a mutually satisfactory agreement and found a way forward to work together so that we can develop, implement and commercialise the group’s research on urine drying through its start-up company – Sanitation360 AB.
SPG will provide S360 with access to business advice, financial support, opportunity to participate in incubator joint activities, open co-working office space, and contribute to the development of our company. We are happy to have such support and are eager to get things rolling! At the same time, we are also grateful for the support we have received from SLU Holding in the past that has helped us get to the stage we are at now.
In this article, the occurrence and fate of 29 multiple-class pharmaceuticals (PhACs) in two source separated sanitation systems based on: (i) batch experiments for the anaerobic digestion (AD) of fecal sludge under mesophilic (37 °C) and thermophilic (52 °C) conditions, and (ii) a full-scale blackwater treatment plant using wet composting and sanitation with urea addition. For more information, please read: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896971935524X .
The sanitation sector needs innovations with
minimal environmental impacts and maximum resource recovery. Separate collection and treatment of urine
is one such method. Technologies for dehydrating or concentrating urine are
part of the emerging innovations that aim to increase resource recovery from
human waste streams. Urine contains a majority of the nutrients found in human
excreta, but also large volumes of liquid. Concentrating technologies have the potential to convert human urine into commercial-quality fertilizer
and reduce transport and treatment costs. Several technologies are now being
piloted around the world, however holistic studies of socio-cultural,
institutional and environmental impacts are lacking.
The aim of this project is to
investigate the potential for increasing the use of urine concentrating
technologies. The proposed study uses a socio-technical approach to meet the
following objectives: 1) investigate the potential for urine concentration to
support global sustainability goals, 2) investigate the technical and market
readiness of urine concentrating systems, and 3) study the socio-technical
dynamics influencing urine concentrating systems in order to identify possible
development strategies.
We are quite happy to share that our project proposal to FORMAS, the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, has recevied funding of 3 million SEK via the annual open call to continue research on the urine dehydration technology. Through this project, the overall goal will be to develop next generation urine dehydrator prototypes that are capable of recovering from urine >95% N, 100% P, and 100% K, in order to produce dry pellets with <5% moisture, but high fertiliser value: >10% N, >2.5% P, and >5% K. The work will be conducted at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences over 3 years between 2020 and 2023.
