BRATTLEBORO — The Rich Earth Institute's flagship program, the Urine Nutrient Reclamation Project, has received additional funds for research and for demonstration of urine for use as fertilizer on local hay fields.
Thanks to a $25,000 summer grant from the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), Research Director Abe Noe-Hays will continue developing reverse osmosis as a treatment method to reduce the volume of urine for ease of transport and storage between seasons of fertilizing.
Operating since 2012, the Rich Earth's pilot project is the first in the United States to collect, transport, sanitize, and apply urine to agricultural crops, completing the nutrient cycle.
More than 200 volunteers have donated urine to this project, which has received national media attention.
As described by the organization in a recent press release, urine diversion is an emerging field of research and a growing possibility for future sustainable sanitation practices. Using new types of toilet fixtures, urine can be separated at the source, in the bathroom, and used as a resource. In many countries around the world, this practice is beginning to take hold.
Since March 2015, Noe-Hays has been working to maximize retention of the nitrogen and phosphorus in urine while extracting water using a reverse osmosis machine, which the institute purchased on Craigslist.
Originally intended to desalinate sea water and provide drinking water on a yacht in Florida, this equipment has been tailored to remove the water and retain the nutrients from the urine.
The institute describes the need to reduce the volume of urine as “critical” for taking this project to scale ,“because it reduces both transportation and storage costs.”
“To date, Rich Earth has demonstrated reduction by a factor of 5, meaning that 100 gallons of urine can be reduced to a 20-gallon concentrate of nutrients,” the organization says.
Recently, additional grants have been secured from the Thomas Thompson Trust, Ben and Jerry's Foundation, and the Crosby-Gannett and Dunham-Mason Funds of the Vermont Community Foundation.
These grant funds are targeted to build new portable urinals, upgrade essential equipment, and subsequently increase the quantity of urine delivered to farm fields in the Windham County region.
With upgraded equipment and increased capacity, the Rich Earth Institute will be ready to grow beyond its annual average of 5,000 gallons of recycled urine, adding new donor participants and new farms to the project.