Technology
In collaboration with many partners around the world, our team has developed technologies for improving the experience and efficiencies of urine collection at a range of scales, from tools for home gardeners to technologies for building-scale wastewater processing.
Gardens
Farmers and gardeners have harnessed the fertilizing power of urine for millennia, safely and effectively using urine as a fertilizer with only the most basic of technology. For more about low-tech tools for urine collection visit Peecycling Tools. For more about reclaiming urine in home gardens, visit Fertilize with Urine.
Communities
Since its start in 2012, our Urine Nutrient Reclamation Program has developed systems for community–scale urine collection and refined them according to participant feedback and to maximize efficiencies. For more on the tools and systems used in this program, visit our Guide to Starting a Community-Scale Urine Diversion Program.
Buildings
In 2019, the Rich Earth Institute spun off Brightwater Tools to bring technologies for urine treatment to market, available for both community- and building-scale systems. Brightwater Tools received a one million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation’s Phase II Small Business Innovation Research program to develop a building-scale “toilet resource” collection and treatment system, which conserves water, prevents water pollution, and produces sanitized fertilizer. Paired with existing commercially-available urine-diverting and vacuum flush toilets, the system separates blackwater from greywater, then purifies and concentrates its nutrients into a ready-to-use fertilizer product. The system employs four modular components: acidification, pasteurization, freeze concentration, and charcoal filtration. The combined effects of these four steps include volume reduction, odor control, and removal of contaminants such as pathogens and pharmaceutical residues. The system is highly energy efficient through optimized processing in each of the treatment components. For more on building-scale treatment, visit Brightwater Tools.
