Progress in Technological Research for Urine Diversion Systems
Watch the video on YouTube to view timestamps for different speakers.
View key comments from the Zoom chat for Part 1 here.
View key comments from the Zoom chat for Part 2 here.
State of the art of urine treatment technologies
Kai Udert has been working on nutrient recovery from urine for most of his career. His research is guided by the principles that human waste must be seen as a resource to replenish nutrients for food production and to prevent environmental pollution due to uncontrolled discharge.
Field Testing the Blue Diversion Autarky Urine Treatment
Michel Riechmann is an environmental engineer with a passion for toilets in all shapes and colors. For the past four years, he has been working at the Swiss water research institute Eawag, where he dedicates his time to the development of a novel on-site urine treatment technology.
Advancing the Design and Operating Conditions for Block Freeze Concentration of Urine-Derived Fertilizer
Abe-Noe-Hays is the Rich Earth Institute research Director. Ryan Homeyer was an ECO AmeriCorps service member with Rich Earth. They will present on findings about a new technology in development for concentrating urine fertilizer.
Stabilization of source-separated urine using electrochemically synthesized hydrogen peroxide
Dr. Sudeep Popat is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at Clemson University. Dr. Popat’s primary research interests lie in application of anaerobic and electrochemical processes in resource recovery from wastewater. Dr. Popat’s current and prior work includes research in the areas of reductive dehalogenation of chlorinated ethenes, anaerobic digestion of municipal sludge, gas-phase bioreactors for biological removal of siloxanes, microbial fuel cells, and electrolysis-based processes for resource recovery from wastewater. Dr. Popat’s research has resulted in >30 peer-reviewed publications.
Successful application of nitritation/anammox to undiluted source-separated urine
Phillip Markus is an environmental engineer working at Eawag in Switzerland as a research assistant. Since 2019, he has been working on urine treatment processes for efficient nutrient recovery.
Recovering urea crystals from stabilized human urine
Dyllon Randall is a chemical engineer by training and is currently an Associate Professor in Water Quality Engineering and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He heads up the research group focusing on resource recovery from human urine.
Advancing Membrane Technologies for Phosphorous and Nitrogen Recovery from Human Urine
Stephanie McCartney is a 5th year PhD Student at Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering working in Dr. Ngai Yin Yip’s group. Stephanie’s focus is on nutrient recovery from human urine using membrane technologies. Upon graduation (expected in 2023) Stephanie plans to work in the wastewater treatment industry and is seeking opportunities.
Concentrating stabilized human urine using reverse osmosis to produce fertilizers
Caitlin Courtney is a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town supervised by Associate Professor Dyllon Randall. Her research focuses on using pressure driven membrane separation process to concentrate urine to produce a concentrated liquid fertilizer. Her research groups core focus is to valorize urine through resource recovery.
Waste*development: Separate Waste. Connect Communities.
Thor Retzlaff is a passionate entrepreneur, skilled storyteller, and avid mountaineer. He is the founder of waste*development, as well as the nonprofit organization, Do Good Sh*t. Since founding the nonprofit in 2018, he has orchestrated urine diversion toilet installations in Chile, Argentina, the United States, and Nepal. For the past year, the waste*development team has integrated source separation technology into portable toilets, and they look to position themselves as a collaborating force for source raw byproducts.
