A team of researchers from the University of Cape Town ( UTC ) is changing how we do by our waste , and we ’re not utter about taking out the recycling . Rather , this crew is growing building brick from human urine .
The modern bio - brick construction material comes in various shape and forcefulness meant to suit a person ’s specific design needs . Created in the same agency seashell are , the nervy engineering hire a rude process calledmicrobial carbonate precipitation . piss from peculiarly designedfertilizer - producingmale urinals and is mixed with on the loose sand that is colonized with bacteria , raise urease . This enzyme split down the urea in weewee to produce Ca carbonate by way of chemical reaction , cementing the sand in its mold at elbow room temperature . By comparison , traditional bricks are kiln - fired at around 400 ° C , creating C dioxide in the process . Even cool is the fact that the military capability , size , and physique of a bio - brick can be cut to single needs .
“ If a client wanted a brick stiff than a 40 % limestone brick , you would allow the bacterium to make the substantial strong by ‘ growing ’ it for foresighted , ” said polite applied scientist Dyllon Randall in astatement . “ The longer you allow the piddling bacterium to make the cement , the stronger the product is going to be . We can optimise that process . ”
The bio - brick body-build on previous US enquiry that used a standardised process but with synthetic solutions meant to mimic water . UTC ’s work is the first to practice actual human urine which , as it turn out , produces nitrogen and potassium as a by - product that can be used in commercial-grade plant food .
That ’s ripe . Urine is literally fluid gold . Although our peeing answer for for less than 1 percent of domestic wastewater by volume , it contain 80 percentage of nitrogen and more than one-half of phosphorus and potassium in sewer water systems . Almost all of the Lucifer found in water can be convert into calcium inorganic phosphate , a key factor in commercial-grade farming globally .
In short , urine is collected in special fertiliser - producing urinals that make a solid fertiliser . From there , the leftover liquid state is then used to grow the bio - bricks using Ca and carbonate ionsnotextracted from the urinal . After the bricks are made , any redundant Cartesian product are made into a 2d plant food . So , our peeing is made into three utile product essentially leave zero waste behind .
But not everyone is as stoked about pee brick as we are . At least , not yet . Randall say logistics are an way out ( collecting and transporting pee is sort of icky ) . Plus , people are uncanny about human waste , so researchers need to make a culture that accept pee - brick from both male and distaff sources .
