University of Michigan gets $3M grant to turn pee into fertilizer

Converting human urine into a safe fertilizer for agricultural crops is the goal of a new $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.


Abraham Noe-Hayes harvests lettuce fertilized with urine-derived fertilizers at the Rich Earth Institute's research plot near Brattleboro Vermont in 2014. This work was a precursor to the $3 million NSF grant on which he will work with University of Michigan researchers. Credit: Marcin Szczepanski, Michigan Photography

University of Michigan engineering researchers lead the project, and they'll work with colleagues at the Vermont-based Rich Earth Institute, U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment, U-M School of Public Health, University at Buffalo and an independent communications consultant.

As part of the effort, the team is installing special demonstration toilets in the G.G. Brown building on U-M's North Campus. The toilets—a waterless urinal and a "source separating" flush toilet—will route urine to a holding tank where it will be treated. It will eventually be used to create fertilizers that will be used at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. The toilet facilities will be open for use this fall.

The grant kicks off the nation's largest program exploring the technology, systems requirements and social attitudes associated with urine-derived fertilizers. It expands work the group started a few years ago growing lettuce and carrots at a research plot in New England. Since 2014, the researchers have been exploring ways to remove bacteria, viruses and residual pharmaceuticals from urine to make it a viable fertilizer.

"We have methods for producing safe fertilizer from urine at the small scale, and now we are developing new technologies to meet the challenge of scaling up. At the same time, we will be assessing ways to introduce the idea of urine recycling into existing modes of thinking," said Abraham Noe-Hays, director of research at the Rich Earth Institute.

Read more at University of Michigan News

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