ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
    • All
    • Animals
    • Climate
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
    • Pollution
    • Renewable Energy
    • World Problems
    The biggest birds in history were probably nocturnal — and blind

    The biggest birds in history were probably nocturnal — and blind

    Credit: Giphy/YouTube.

    Adorable Dumbo octopus makes surprise appearance on camera

    Pumpkins.

    This Halloween, do the right thing — fight food waste and eat your pumpkin

    Credit: Pixabay.

    Why there may be thousands of stink bugs hiding under your sofa

    Scientists find that soil bacteria can devour potent greenhouse gas

    Scientists find that soil bacteria can devour potent greenhouse gas

    Frighting satellite imagery of East Island site before and after the hurricane hit. Credit: Chip Fletcher.

    Powerful hurricane wipes out tiny Hawaiian island off the map

    Bitcoin could nudge global warming past 2°C

    Bitcoin could nudge global warming past 2°C

    Urine Brick.

    Bricks grown from your urine make for greener houses, plumper crops

    Green Home.

    How to reduce your home’s ecological footprint

    • Animals
    • Climate
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • All
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
    Twice as many people die of gun-related suicide than homicide in the U.S. — but Americans perceive the opposite

    Twice as many people die of gun-related suicide than homicide in the U.S. — but Americans perceive the opposite

    Pumpkins.

    This Halloween, do the right thing — fight food waste and eat your pumpkin

    Dogs successfully diagnose malaria in children

    Dogs successfully diagnose malaria in children

    Chess tournament shows you really burn a lot of calories while thinking

    Chess tournament shows you really burn a lot of calories while thinking

    Physically attractive women don’t have higher levels of sex hormones, new study reveals

    Physically attractive women don’t have higher levels of sex hormones, new study reveals

    Cannabis oil improves Crohn’s disease symptoms

    Cannabis oil improves Crohn’s disease symptoms

    Animation of cerebellum. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

    The cerebellum is much more ‘brainy’ than we thought

    That cold, gloomy weather you hate? It might give you a heart attack

    That cold, gloomy weather you hate? It might give you a heart attack

    woman grief

    Widows and widowers who suffer from intense grief risk inflammation that can kill

    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • FutureNEW
  • Space
    • All
    • Alien life
    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Hubble
    • Observations
    • Space flight
    Illustration of NASA"s Parker Solar Probe. Credit: NASA.

    Parker solar probe comes closer to the sun than any other man-made spacecraft

    Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun Pose a Big Threat to Earth

    Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun Pose a Big Threat to Earth

    Cheap CubeSat snaps first images of Mars

    Cheap CubeSat snaps first images of Mars

    An artist's impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars. Credit: R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL/EPA.

    The Universe is expanding — gravitational waves could show us how fast

    Illustration of CI Tau, which is surrounded by a planetary disc and has four gas giants orbiting around it. Credit: University of Cambridge.

    Gas giants orbiting young star may require astronomers to rethink planetary formation

    At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 55 backup crew members Nick Hague of NASA (left) and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos (right) pose for pictures during a day of qualification exams Feb. 20, 2018. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

    American and Russian astronauts escape malfunctioning Soyuz launch

    An artist conception of what the system around Kepler-186f could look like. Credit: NASA AMES/SETI INSTITUTE/JPL-CALTECH.

    Search for alien life needs to be integral to NASA missions in the future, new report says

    Saturn.

    Planetary rings are surprisingly chemically-rich, paper reports

    If we want to find the “missing” dark matter, we have to look beyongblack holes

    If we want to find the “missing” dark matter, we have to look beyongblack holes

    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Observations
  • Feature
    Green Home.

    How to reduce your home’s ecological footprint

    Meet the trillions of viruses that make up your virome

    Meet the trillions of viruses that make up your virome

    Credit: Pixabay.

    How do solar panels work?

    ‘Trimming the fat’ — the implications for research and education

    ‘Trimming the fat’ — the implications for research and education

    Renowned mathematician Michael Atiyah claims to have solved the Riemann Hypothesis

    Renowned mathematician Michael Atiyah claims to have solved the Riemann Hypothesis

    What the season of fall – and science – teaches us about life and death

    What the season of fall – and science – teaches us about life and death

    Credit: Richard Watson, Imperial College London.

    The table of disruptive technologies: a timeline of industry-killing breakthroughs

    Sketch of Valentina Tereshkova by Phillip J Bond.

    The First Woman in Space: The Story of Valentina Tereshkova

    Credit: Pixabay.

    Do dogs have feelings?

    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • ZME Science
    • Advertise
    • Legal
    • Contact
    • logo
SUBSCRIBE
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Scientists show that some headlines are better than others

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
HomeScienceBiology

Bricks grown from your urine make for greener houses, plumper crops

A story that has some 'ew' -- but definitely a lot of 'wow', too.

Alexandru Micu byAlexandru Micu
October 29, 2018
inBiology, Chemistry, Green Living, News, Pollution, Science
0
0
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubmit to Reddit

University of Cape Town (UCT) researchers want to make cheaper fertilizers and greener buildings — using your toilet.

Urine Brick.
(From the left) UCT’s Department of Civil Engineering’s Dr Dyllon Randall and his students, Vukheta Mukhari and Suzanne Lambert, holding the newly-unveiled bio-brick.
Image credits University of Cape Town.

Building materials like concrete, steel, or bricks are quite energy-intensive to produce. Since most of this energy is produced in fossil-fuel plants, it has a sizeable carbon footprint. Emissions associated with fuel use and those released by certain chemical processes during manufacture add to these products’ overall carbon footprint.

But, if you’re looking for a more eco-friendly alternative for all your masonry pursuits…

ADVERTISEMENT

Urine luck

A team led by Suzanne Lambert, a civil engineering master’s student at the UCT, unveiled the first bio-brick developed from human urine. The material is created through microbial carbonate precipitation, a process similar to that used by marine creatures to build their shells.

It largely involves strengthening sand with chemicals derived from urine. The sand is colonized with bacteria that produce urease (an enzyme that breaks down urea in urine. The resulting calcium carbonate binds the grains of sand together, creating a very solid object in virtually any shape. It has to be mentioned, however, that sand is becoming an increasingly scarce material.

The concept of using urea for bricks isn’t exactly new — it was first tested in the U.S. a few years ago. However, Lambert’s team is the first one to use human urine, not synthetic solutions, for the process. This isn’t the first bio-brick to be developed, nor the first solid brick based on simple materials — but they do come with a wide range of bonuses that make them stand out.

One of the best parts of the new bricks is that they’re fabricated in molds at room temperature. This drastically reduces their emission levels compared to regular bricks. The fabrication process can also be tweaked to address particular needs — lower production times (and thus, costs), or higher-strength.

“If a client wanted a brick stronger than a 40 percent limestone brick, you would allow the bacteria to make the solid stronger by ‘growing’ it for longer,” said Dr. Dyllon Randall, a senior lecturer at UCT and Lambert’s supervisor. “The longer you allow the little bacteria to make the cement, the stronger the product is going to be. We can optimise that process.”

Brick the houses, sow the fields

Bio-bricks could also, surprisingly, help us grow plumper crops. Urine is rich in several chemical compounds that are key ingredients in fertilizers: nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus (we’re running low on virtually every one of those compounds). Chemically speaking, Dr Randall adds, urine is liquid gold. Although it accounts for under 1% of domestic wastewater by volume, it provides 80% of the nitrogen, 63% of the potassium, and 56% of the phosphorus in wastewater. Nitrogen is particularly important from an agricultural point of view.

Most of these compounds can be harvested from wastewater, the team adds. Some 97% of the phosphorus present in urine, for example, can be recovered and used for fertilizers.

Virtually nothing is wasted when producing these bio-bricks, the team writes. The process starts with urine collected from novel fertilizer-producing urinals. Here, it’s used to create a solid fraction (which is basically a fertilizer mix). The liquid fraction is then used to grow the brick themselves.

“In that process, we’re only after two components: carbonate ions and the calcium. What we do last is take the remaining liquid product from the bio-brick process and make a second fertiliser,” Dr Randall explains.

The main hurdle the team has to overcome is logistics — namely the collection and transport of urine to processing facilities. How society reacts to the idea is another hotbed for discussion. Right now, the team is only dealing with urine collection from male urinals “because that’s socially accepted,” says Dr Randall. However, that leaves “half of the population” out of the process, which is a shame.

Still, Dr Randall hopes that their work will help people reconsider their relationship with waste — of any kind.

“In this example you take something that is considered a waste and make multiple products from it. You can use the same process for any waste stream. It’s about rethinking things,” he said.

Tags: Bio-brickBrickFertilizersureaurine
ShareTweetShare

How much money are you losing by not going solar? Use our savings calculator for rooftop solar.

Alexandru Micu

Alexandru Micu

Stunningly charming pun connoisseur, I have been fascinated by the world around me since I first laid eyes on it. Always curious, I'm just having a little fun with some very serious science.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Recent stories

Credit: Pixabay.

Why there may be thousands of stink bugs hiding under your sofa

by Contributing Author
October 30, 2018
0
44

There are unexpected and unappreciated guests sneaking into our homes.

Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun Pose a Big Threat to Earth

Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun Pose a Big Threat to Earth

by Contributing Author
October 30, 2018
0
80

This is some scary stuff.

Young kids are exposed to many app advertisements, new study reports

Young kids are exposed to many app advertisements, new study reports

by Mihai Andrei
October 28, 2018
0
64

This is worrying news.

Scientists find that soil bacteria can devour potent greenhouse gas

Scientists find that soil bacteria can devour potent greenhouse gas

by Tibi Puiu
October 29, 2018
0
50

The study provides a novel pathway for removing nitrous oxide from the atmosphere.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • The Team
  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
    • Animals
    • Climate
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Observations
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • ZME Science
    • Advertise
    • Legal
    • Contact
    • logo

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.