Congratulations and welcome to SLU, we look forward to continue the collaboration in the future. Program Manager Madeleine Fogde is a trained teacher and currently program manager for the Swedish International Agricultural Network Initiative (Siani), which is coordinated by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). Siani has a broad membership base and is a very inclusive organization that offers an attractive network for people working with agricultural research globally. She has worked extensively with low-income countries in Africa, including in a water supply and ecological sanitation program in Mozambique. She has a large worldwide network in agriculture, sanitation and women’s organizations.
In a study recently published in Science of the Total Environment, we present results from a study that investigated drying of fresh source-separated human urine in five different alkaline media (pH > 11) at elevated temperatures (50 and 60 °C) with minimal loss of urea, urine’s principal nitrogen compound. We found that it was possible to concentrate urine 48 times, yielding dry end-products with high fertiliser value: approximately, 10% N, 1% P, and 4% K. We monitored the physicochemical properties and the composition of various dehydration media to provide useful insights into their suitability for dehydrating urine. We demonstrated that it is possible to recover >90% nitrogen when treating fresh urine by alkaline dehydration by inhibiting the enzymatic hydrolysis of urea at elevated pH and minimising the chemical hydrolysis of urea with high urine dehydration rates.
On 7th February, we inaugurated our new urine-diverting toilet here at the department of energy and technology, at SLU’s Ultuna campus. The installation was made possible due to a grant from SLU-climate fund that financed the installation together with the Save! Urine diverting flushed toilet from Laufen and SLU’s landlord Akademiska hus. The existing conventional toilet was exchanged with the new Laufen toilet “Save!” as a permanent installation. The urine is led out from the wall and connected to the test bed (the larger box on the side into where the urine drying equipment is installed).
Towards the end of January, Jenna Senecal and Viktoria Wiklicky from Kretsloppsteknik were in Tampere, Finland to decomission our 25 L/day urine drying system that was in operation at the basement of Lielahti Manor house. The system was in use in between June 2019 and January 2020, and was a great showcase of the group’s and Sanitation360 AB’s on-site urine treatment technology, alkaline urine dehydration. Through this project, we demonstrated to our various Finnish partners that our technology is scalable, socio-technically feasbile, and marks a significant step away from erstwhile urine processing technologies. We are very thankful to our various collaborators, partners and stakeholders that helped make this a successful pilot project – Tampere City, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Hiedanranta Development Programme, city workers, officials, plumbers, subcontractors, research interns, and others.
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.
