Generating fertilizer from human urine
Kara Nelson, Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Applications for Fall 2024 are closed for this project.
Despite being less than 1% of the total volume of liquid treated in wastewater treatment plants, urine is responsible for over 80% of the nitrogen in a treatment plants' influent stream. Commonly, this influx of nitrogen is only partially treated, leading to the release of excess nitrogen into the environment, with the common side effect of eutrophication an environmentally harmful result of this improper waste management. Removing the nitrogen from urine not only prevents the discharge of excess nutrients into the environment, but provides an opportunity to create a nutrient dense fertilizer from the recovered nitrogen. Once urine has been separated from the other waste streams, valuable nutrients for soil fertility, specifically ammonium, can be extracted; one promising technology for ammonium recovery from source-separated urine is ion exchange. This research project leverages the high ammonium content in urine with a four column ion exchange reactor to produce 2 outputs; treated urine (nitrogen removed) and liquid ammonium sulfate, a commonly used fertilizer.
Role: We are looking to hire a highly motivated undergrad who is interested in WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) research and its implications for global sanitation. A successful application does not need to be someone with in depth wet lab experience, but someone who is excited and open to learning hands-on engineering practices. The undergraduate on this project will be responsible for assisting with runs of the reactor, sample collection, supporting reactor repairs, data collection and analysis, as well as other random jobs that pop up as the project continues. This research project is constantly evolving and would be best suited towards a flexible, quick-on-their-feet undergraduate.
Qualifications: More so than a lengthy resume, a desired candidate will be open to learning lots of skills required to run and maintain a reactor.
Recommended but not required skills: A strong background in chemistry (preferable taken up to organic chem), good organization skills, passion for research, interest in pursuing research for more than one semester
Desired but not required skills: coding (C++ for our arduino and raspberry pi), some wet lab experience (pipetting, dilution calculations, etc.), electrical engineering skills (soldering, stripping and rewiring).
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Camille Brule, Graduate Student
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Related website: https://nelsongroup.berkeley.edu/
Engineering, Design & Technologies Biological & Health Sciences