Urine to Urea Chemical Proccesing Pathway

Basics

• This is a process of refining collected human (From seperating toilets and urinals) or animal urine into more pure, stable, and more appealing (Less "Gross" factor and is thus more acceptible to use on feilds etc) chemical products
• Also removes impurities, pharmecuticals, and microbial life from the urine thus reducing contamination risks
• May produce a phospherous heavy biproduct
• Much more complex that Dilute and Dispose, direct use, or feeding into an aquaponics/hydroponics system, but may produce useful results
• This page explores the chemical process, not the technical apperatus
• It is thus also small scale lab level, or theroretical larger scale, not a fully fleshed out plant design

Existing Work

Example by NileRed

• The Youtube Channel NileRed did this expirement
• The Video
• Pathway they used:
  • Boiling to concentrate solution
  • Then allowing it to stand and cool
  • Then Vacuum Filtration to Remove Initial Solids
  • Addition of Nitric Acid (Concentrated but not fuming)
  • This forms urea nitrate which is not soluable in water thus precipitates out
  • Then the urea nitrate is recrystalized to increase purity by essentially vacuum filtering, adding more nitric acid to the vacuum filtered powder, then looping the process until clean crystals are recovered (Or one time after this for good measure), granted this does decrease efficiency but increases purity, so evaluate the tradeoff based on needs of the end product)
  • Add Concentrated Potassium Carbonate Solution to produce Urea, Potassium Nitrate, and Carbon Dioxide in a the remaining Water from the Potassium Carbonate Solution (Note that this produces foam which needs to be taken into account)
  • The Urea Will Dissolve into the Water Which should be Evapotated Off (MUST be below boiling to prevent decomposition of urea
  • It will evaporate to a syrup like liquid, then a powder/crystal
  • Then hot ethonol is added to dissolve the urea, seperating it from the Potassium nitrate
  • This is then Vacuum Filtered
  • The Process is then Repeated untill Desired Purity Is Reached
• In their video they produced 7.8g with ~3 L of human urine with a potential 9g/l yeild (~27g total potential yield)
• This is a ~29% Yield
• They Concluded this was from loss from recrystalization and decomposition

OSE Chemical Process

• Potassium Carbonate is Purified via Recrytalization of Ash
• Nitric acid is made from electrically produced nitrogen dioxide and water, which is then evaporated and/or distilled to the proper concentration
• Otherwise the process is the same
• Look into feedstock recovery and phospherous co-extraction as well

Usefulness Evaluation

Amount needed per acre for a full non organic/hybrid farm

• A 275 gallon IBC container is ~ 1040 Liters when full
• This works out to ~28,080 g or 28 kg potential yield or 8,112g or 8.112 kg Yield" if the same yield of nile red is obtained
• Assuming ~8-9 kg are made these are then fed into a pellet mill
• urea is 46% nitrogen by mass so thaat gives 3.68-4.14 kg nitrogen total for a nile red like yield
• 43.56lb per acre of nitrogen or 19758.484g / 19.758484 kg of urea per acre
• So that means per acre of field of fertilizer being fertilized to a full non-organic spec ~2.5 IBC Containers of Collected are needed
• So 3 Households could fertilize 1 acre completely per "batch" or more if a higher than nile red yield is produced

Average Human Production Rate

• The Average Human Produces anywhere from 800-2,000ml of urine per day
• Choose 1,500ml for ease of calculation
• This means a 275gallon IBC container = ~693 1 Person Days
• The Average USA Household has 2.52 people
• This Equals ~275 Household Days per IBC Container

Animal Production Rates

Cattle

• Large farms may produce a large amount, would turn would be runoff into fertillizer

Horses

• Stable Collection was historically used as an ammonia source via urea being converted via bacterial enzymes

Amount of Nitrogen Fertilizer Needed per Non-Organic/Hybrid Farm of Average Size per Year

• Granted this all varies by crop used
• Assuming the above value of 20kg/acre of urea (rounded for ease of use) and according to the USDA small USA family farms average 231 acres
• If once a year that is a total of 4620kg of urea needed per full fertilization
• This equals ~513-57 total IBC Containers of Collected Urine Feedstock
• Or 355,509 1 person days, 974 1 person years, or 387 household years
• This is DEFINETLY not self sufficient as 1 acre can probably not feed ALL those people
• BUT this assumes traditional methods are the only methods used
• If used in conjunction with compost, bio-methane produced petrochemical nitrogen fertilizers, anerobic digester leachate, and technologies such as aquaponics, and nitrogen fixing crops/microbes, a sustainable system with fertilizer backup/soil build up mix could be acheived

See Also

• Urea
• [[Urea to Anhydrous Amonia Chemical Processing Pathway]
• Bio-Methane to Amonia
• Fertilizer
• Compost