Recovery of Nutrient and Stabilisation Techniques in Source Separated Urine

Recovery of Nutrient and Stabilisation Techniques in Source Separated Urine 1
Recovery of Nutrient and Stabilisation Techniques in Source Separated Urine
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Urine is a source of some important nutrients and by improving the nutrient in it, we
reduce some environmental problems. The nutrients can be used to make nitrogenous
fertilizers, which increase crop yields. Behind protecting our environment, fertilizer costs are
also reduced. Urine that is collected in UDDTs is not the same as the urine collected when
fresh. In storage tanks, organic biodegrading substances are broken down by microorganisms.

Recovery of Nutrient and Stabilisation Techniques in Source Separated Urine 2
When treating urine, sanitation is very important to both the person taking the analysis
as well as the environment. Each individual excretes almost 2 litres of urine daily, on
average. Central waste water treatment plants are known to use conventional concept of
sanitation. Other waste water streams are used to dilute urine many times. This dilution
effectively removes micro pollutants, such as medicines and hormones. It also helps to boost
the valuable components recovery. In the final product, there is a recovery of almost all
nutrients.
The only exception is little ammonia that volatilizes in the distillation process and
nutrients in the excess withdrawn sludge, which are all negligible. Only 2% of the total
nitrogen amount is lost (Udert and Wächter 2012). In the collection tanks, there is
precipitation of around 32% of the phosphate. It may as well not reach the nitrification
reactor, meaning the tanks used to store urine should be thoroughly cleaned to collect the
solids, in an attempt to maximize the recovery of nutrients.
A wastewater treatment plant that is centralized and has a good sewer system
represents the best approach to manage wastewater (Cai et al. 2013).This system, however, is
limited in some ways. An extensive infrastructural network as well as large water amounts is
required. Some decentralized reactors that are highly efficient and small can be used instead.
In the management of wastewater, therefore, they create room for more flexibility.
In an attempt to come up with processes that can be used in such treatments of
wastewater, Luo et al. (2014) developed some 3 principles: Resource recovery was the first
one. The main focus was to recover all the resources that wastewater streams contain, in this
treatment. The second principle was decentralization. Proximity to the source is very
important. If the source is not far away from waste streams, resource consumption will be
minimized. There will also be minimal pollution of environment. Separation at the source

Recovery of Nutrient and Stabilisation Techniques in Source Separated Urine 3
was the third principle. There are different compositions in waste streams. They should thus
be treated differently in line with their features.
The finite material resources as well as non-renewable energy are used on the current
production of fertilizer. All humans excrete nutrients consumed through faeces and urine.
They then find their way into wastewater streams. Urine alone carries the most nutrients
found in wastewater. These nutrients could become important fertilizer if they are recovered
through source-separation. Struvite precipitation is the most reliable process of recovering
nutrients to date (Cai et al. 2013). Most of the nitrogen (N) is, however, left in the liquid
phase, as only phosphorus (P) is recovered in the process. Microbial Electrochemical
Technologies (METs) use the substrate source-separated urine. Because urine has promising
properties, the substrate has recently gained interest.
Some of the critical global issues affecting the rising population are the freshwater
and nutrients shortages. Rizzo et al. (2013) believes that this problem can however be
addressed by one promising approach, using the decentralized resource recovery in
conjunction with source separation of waste streams. Some 52% of phosphorus (P) and 80%
of nitrogen (N) are contained in urine found in a single percent of wastewater in households.
Microalgae help in the efficient uptake of nutrients. As a promising technology, they
should be grown in urine. Biomass in return is produced as fertilizer in addition to cleaning
urine. In their study, Podol et al. (2017) developed an efficient process of recovering
nutrients. On porous substrate photo bioreactors (PSBRs), they used immobilized microalgae
cultivation. The human urine was minimally diluted. With an exception of a 1:1 dilution
with clean water, urine treatment was not amended. The green alga Desmodesmus abundans
was used to treat. It was selected between 98 algal strains obtained from culture collections
and enrichments specific to activated carbon. It assisted to remove likely pharmaceutical
detrimental effects. PSBRs are very effective when combined with other technologies. It