Human urine as an efficient fertilizer product in agriculture
¹Széchenyi István University, Faculty of Mechanical, Informatics and Electrical Engineering, Department of Applied Mechanics, Egyetem tér 1. HU9026 Győr, Hungary
²Széchenyi István University, Audi Hungaria Faculty of Automotive Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, Egyetem tér 1. HU9026 Győr, Hungary
*Correspondence: nagyju@sze.hu
Abstract:
Flush toilet based water infrastructure, which handles blackwater and greywater together, causes a lot of environmental problems. Among these, the loss of valuable organic material and nutrient content of human excreta (faeces and urine) is not sufficiently emphasized yet. Utilization of human excreta for agricultural purposes is based on the separate collection of greywater and human excreta. As urine contains most of the nutrients of human excreta, researches focus mainly on urine’s treatment and utilization for agricultural purposes. We reviewed the data in literature about the nutrient content of human excreta. In this paper we present the content of macro and microelements of human urine to show its potential value as a fertilizer. To confirm the necessity of urine’s utilization in agriculture instead of treated it by traditional waste water treatment methods, we have collected and compared the most important advantages and disadvantages of traditional wastewater treatment, separated handling of greywater and excreta as well as human urine’s agricultural utilization.
Key words:
agriculture., dry toilets, human excreta, human urine, sustainable development, urine-diversion dry toilets, wastewater treatment