ARTICLE IN PRESS

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40 (2006) 3151 3166

Available at www.sciencedirect.com

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/watres

Review

Treatment processes for source-separated urine

M. Maurer, W. Pronk, T.A. Larsen
Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), 8600 Dubendorf, Switzerland

art i cle info

A B S T R A C T

Article history:

The separate collection and treatment of urine has attracted considerable attention in the

Received 20 December 2005

engineering community in the last few years and is seen as a viable option for enhancing

Received in revised form

the flexibility of wastewater treatment systems. This comprehensive review focuses on the

7 July 2006

status of current urine treatment processes and summarises the properties of collected

Accepted 11 July 2006

urine. We distinguish between seven main purposes of urine-treatment processes:

Available online 1 September 2006

hygienisation (storage), volume reduction (evaporation, freeze-thaw, reverse osmosis),

Keywords:

stabilisation (acidification, nitrification), P-recovery (struvite formation), N-recovery (ion-

Urine treatment

exchange, ammonia stripping, isobutylaldehyde-diurea (IBDU) precipitation), nutrient

Process engineering

removal (anammox) and handling of micropollutants (electrodialysis, nanofiltration,

Wastewater

ozonation). The review shows clearly that a wide range of technical options is available

Source separation

to treat collected urine effectively, but that none of these single options can accomplish all

Sustainable wastewater treatment

seven purposes. Depending on the overall goal of the treatment process, a specific technical

Struvite

solution or a combination of solutions can be found to meet the requirements. Such

P-recovery

combinations are not discussed in this paper unless they are explicitly presented in the

N-recovery

literature. Except for evaporation and storage, none of the processes described have so
far advanced beyond the laboratory stage. Considerable development work remains to be
done to optimise urine-processing techniques in order to create marketable products.
& 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents
1.
2.
3.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3152
Composition of urine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3152
Treatment units. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3153
3.1. Hygienisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3155
3.1.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3155
3.1.2. Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3155
3.2. Volume reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3156
3.2.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3156
3.2.2. Evaporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3156
3.2.3. Freeze-thaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3157
3.2.4. Reverse osmosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3157

Corresponding author. Tel.: +41 1 823 5386.

E-mail address: max.maurer@eawag.ch (M. Maurer).

0043-1354/$ - see front matter & 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.watres.2006.07.012

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3.3.

4.

1.

Stabilisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3157
3.3.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3157
3.3.2. Acidification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3157
3.3.3. Partial nutrification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3158
3.4. P-recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3158
3.4.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3158
3.4.2. Struvite (MgNH4PO4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3159
3.5. N-recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3159
3.5.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3159
3.5.2. Ion exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3159
3.5.3. Ammonia stripping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3160
3.5.4. Isobutylaldehyde-diurea (IBDU) precipitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3160
3.6. Nutrient removal (P and N) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3160
3.6.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3160
3.6.2. Anammox Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3160
3.7. Removal of micropollutants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3161
3.7.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3161
3.7.2. Electrodialysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3161
3.7.3. Nanofiltration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3161
3.7.4. Ozonation and advanced oxidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3162
Conclusions and outlook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3162
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3163
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3163

Introduction

In the 1990s, various European groups began working on the

same basic idea that separating urine at source could
promote the sustainability of wastewater management
(Kirchmann and Pettersson, 1995; Larsen and Gujer, 1996).
All these approaches are based on the fact that urine contains
most of the nutrients in domestic wastewater but makes up
less than one percent of the total wastewater volume.
Substantial separation of urine at source would thus allow
nutrient recycling from a concentrated nutrient solution and
at the same time obviate advanced nutrient removal, including nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus elimination
(Wilsenach and Van Loosdrecht, 2004).
Urine-source separation presents many advantages, but also
leaves many open questions. Besides the obvious advantages
mentioned above, it also promises better ways of removing
organic micropollutants originating from the human metabolism (Escher et al., 2006) and new ways of more efficient
wastewater management when applied in the rapidly expanding and water-scarce cities in emerging countries (Huang et al.,
2006; Medilanski et al., 2006). Furthermore, it offers increased
flexibility and a possible shift away from investments in
prototypic wastewater treatment plants towards mass-produced market goods (Larsen and Gujer, 2001). Flexibility is well
illustrated by the many different treatment options discussed
in this paper, ranging from nutrient removal to nutrient
recycling, but the potential of mass-producing goods for
wastewater treatment is seldom discussed. As an example,
household treatment of urine seems inefficient and expensive
with todays technology, but nobody has really examined how
long it would take a market economy to develop smart massproduced technology to do exactly that at competitive costs.
There are also many challenges in connection with source
separation of urine. Once urine has left the body it becomes

an unpleasant, smelly and unstable solution. It is locally

produced and the present practise of dilution with large
amounts of water is actually a perfect way of neutralising
many of the more unpleasant aspects of urine. Furthermore,
centralized wastewater management is a system with interdependent actors, and changing even a small part of it is
extremely difficult (Larsen and Lienert, 2003). Finally, the
question of transportation has not yet been solved. Larsen
and Gujer (1996) suggested local storage and transport in
sewers over night; the concept developed in Sweden is longterm local storage followed by truck transport (Hanaeus et al.,
1997); in some pilot projects, multiple piping is tested (PeterFrohlich, 2002) and finally, on-site treatment may be possible
in the future, provided that the technical difficulties can be
overcome (Wilsenach et al., subm.). In the present paper, we
concentrate on the possibilities and difficulties of the process
engineering options.
Because the composition of urine reflects the average
requirement of nutrients for plant growth (Heinonen-Tanski
and van Wijk-Sijbesma, 2005), the use of urine as a fertilizer
in agriculture is the most obvious application, but industrial
usage or simple nutrient removal are other possible options.
In this paper, we give an overview of the available technologies for treating source-separated urine, drawing on the
experience gained with urine treatment in different situations (e.g. manned space flights) as well as on experience in
the treatment of other high-strength liquid waste products.

2.

Composition of urine

A large amount of data for urine is available in the medical

literature. Urine from collection systems differs from these
data, because (a) the composition is averaged over time and
user group, (b) chemical alteration occurs in a non-sterile

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4 0 (200 6) 315 1 316 6

Table 1 Concentration of urine from different collection systems

Parameter

Unit

Source

Concentration
Household
S [1]

Dilution[a]
pH
Ntot
NH+4 +NH3


NO

3 +NO2
Ptot
COD

gO m
3

K
S
Na
Cl
Ca
Mg
Mn
B

(gK m
3)
(gS m
3)
(gNa m
3)
(gCl m
3)
(gCa m
3)
(gMg m
3)
(gMn m
3)
(gB m
3)

()
()
(gN m
3)
(gN m
3)
(gN m
3)
(gP m
3)

School S

[1]

Workplace
CH [2]

Workplace
CH [3]

Household
S [4]

Workplace
CH [5]

Fresh
urine [6],[c]

0.33
9.0
1795
1691
0.06
210

0.33
8.9
2610
2499
0.07
200

0.26
9.0
1793
1720

76
1650

?
9.0

4347

154
6000

0.75
9.1
3631
3576
o0.1
313

1
9.1
9200
8100
0
540
10000

1
6.2
8830
463

8002000

875
225
982
2500
15.75
1.63
0
0.435

1150
175
938
2235
13.34
1.50
0
0.440

770
98
837
1400
28
1.0

3284
273[b]
1495
2112

1000
331
1210
1768
18
11.1
0.037

2200
505[b]
2600
3800
0
0

2737
1315
3450
4970
233
119
0.019
0.97

The dilution[a] by the flushing water of the collection systems is extracted from the information given by the publications. For comparison, the
urine composition of fresh urine (non hydrolysed) is listed in column [6].Legend: [a]: defined as Vurine/(Vurine+Vwater), [b]: only sulfate
S
(SO2

4
S), [c]: value measured in undiluted, fresh urine, without precipitation, [1]: Kirchmann and Pettersson (1995), [2]: Udert et al. (2003a), [3]:
Ronteltap et al. (2003), [4]: Jonsson et al. (1997), [5]: Udert et al. (2005a), [6]: Ciba-Geigy (1977).

environment, and (c) dilution with flushing water adds

elements such as calcium and magnesium that can further
alter the composition.
The composition of stored urine from different collection
systems is listed in Table 1. Data from a medical source (CibaGeigy, 1977; last column) is given as a comparison for fresh
urine. During storage under non-sterile conditions, the urea
present in urine is hydrolysed to ammonia/ammonium and
carbonate due to microbial activity. This causes a pH increase
from around 6 to around 9 and triggers the precipitation of
calcium and magnesium in form of carbonates and phosphates (Udert et al., 2003a/b). This is clearly visible in the low
Ca and Mg concentrations in the stored urine. Depending on
the urine collection system, more or less flushing water is
present in the collected liquid. This water dilutes the overall
concentration of the substances and is considered in Table 1
with a dilution factor that expresses the fraction of undiluted
urine in the collection tank. Only the composition from
reference [5] in Table 1 presents concentrations from undiluted urine and therefore deviates substantially from all the
other concentrations.
The heavy metal content in urine is generally low (Kirchmann and Pettersson, 1995; Jonsson et al., 1997; Ciba-Geigy,
1977). Specific concentrations, i.e. relative to phosphorus or
nitrogen, are relevant if we want to use urine or products
derived from it as fertiliser. The comparison with commercial
fertilizer shows clearly that urine is always at the low or very
low end compared to commercially available fertilizer or
manure. Phosphate fertiliser in particular can have a high
heavy-metal content depending on the rock phosphate used.
Thus, analyses performed by Rogowski et al. (1999) and
McBride and Spiers (2001) show that agricultural bulk
fertilizers can have cadmium concentrations of up to

36 gCd kg
1
P , which are several magnitudes higher than those
of typical urine.
An important excretion pathway for hormones and many
pharmaceuticals is via urine. This is actively prepared in the
liver by enhancing the water solubility of organic substances
adsorbed, so that they can be removed in the kidneys and
excreted via the urine (e.g. Ritschel and Kearns, 1999). Urine
might therefore contain a majority of the dissolved micropollutants excreted by humans and due to their mobility also
the one most prone to transport and relevant for aquatic
ecosystems. However, it has to be emphasised that so far
there are no systematic evaluation of the medical literature
published that would back up this point statistically. Exceptions are estrogens, where 80% of the natural estrogens and
67% of the artificial hormone 17a-ethinyl estradiol are
excreted via urine (review in Christiansen et al., 2002).
Recent research indicates that the toxic effects of pharmaceuticals are additive. Silva et al. (2002) made it very clear that
in complex mixtures, such as wastewater or urine, threshold
values are very difficult to set. Escher et al. (2002 & 2005)
showed that the toxic effect of a mix of pharmaceuticals,
each without any specific mode of toxicity (baseline toxicity),
can be estimated by adding up the toxic effects of the single
substances.

3.

Treatment units

The unique properties of urine mean that a wide variety of

technologies may be used to treat it. We defined seven main
purposes of a treatment unit: volume reduction, P-recovery,
N-recovery, stabilisation, hygienisation, removal of micropollutants and biological nutrient removal. For practical

++
+

++

+
+

o
o

o
o

+
++
+

++

o
o

+
+

++
+

o
+
o

++
++

++

+
o

o
o

o
(+)

o
++
o

++

o
o

++

++
++

P-recovery

o
o

o
o

++

++
++
++

o
o

++

++
++

Nrecovery

o
++

?
?

o
o
o

o
?

o
o

MP
elimination

++
o

+
o

+
++
++

++

o
o

o
o

NutrientMP
separation

o
o

++
+

o
o
o

o
o

o
o

Nutrient
elimination

o
o

(+)
(+)

++
++
o

++

o
(+)

++
o

(+)

Solidification

+
o

+
(+)

o
o
o

o
o

+
o

Need of pre/posttreatment

+
+

++
+

+
++
+

++

+
+

o
+

Info literature

The columns represent the goals that can be achieved with a specific process; the rows list the technological process.Legend: o: no effect, +: positive effect, ++: strong effect,
: not applicable.

Nanofiltration
Ozonation

Micropollution removal
Electrodialysis

Anammox
Others

Nutrient removal

o
o
o

N-recovery
Ion exchange
Struvite
NH3 stripping

Isobutylaldehydediurea

+
+

++
+

Stabilisation

WAT E R R E S E A R C H

P-recovery
Struvite

Microfiltration
Nitrification

Reverse osmosis

Stabilisation
Acidification

+
?

Vol.
reduction

3154

Volume reduction
Evaporation
Freeze-thaw

Storage

Hygienisation

Hygiene

Table 2 Overview of the treatment methods discussed in the paper

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3155

Fig. 1 General template for the description of urine treatment processes.

Fig. 2 Storage (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

purposes, each treatment unit is assigned one of these seven

main purposes and is discussed under the corresponding
section. The assignment is somewhat arbitrary, because most
treatments attain several goals and other purposes might
have prevailed depending on the priorities set by the
evaluator. Table 2 gives an overview of the treatment methods
discussed in the paper. The efficiencies for specific goals
(columns) are roughly characterised. In order to achieve a
specific treatment target, it may be necessary to combine
several unit operations. For reasons of brevity, such combinations are not discussed here unless they are explicitly
presented in the literature.
Each urine treatment process is roughly summarized in a
little scheme (Figs. 214). A general explanation of these
schemes is given in Fig. 1.

3.1.

Hygienisation

3.1.1.

Introduction

Urine from unhealthy humans may contain pathogenic

organisms (Santos et al., 2004; Vanchiere et al., 2005) as well
as prions (Reichl, 2002). Furthermore, faecal contamination
can result in high counts of faecal indicator organisms
(Hoglund et al., 2002b). Schonning et al. (2002) estimated a
faecal contamination of 9.175.6 mg l
1
urine in the urine collection system that they investigated. Although the exposition
pathways and effects associated with these pathogens have
not been investigated in detail, hygienic risks associated with
source-separated urine have to be avoided.

Technically, there are many ways of pasteurising or

sterilising any solution (heat, pressure, UV, etc.), but none of
these methods have been tested for urine. Only storage has
been explicitly investigated for its ability to reduce the
amount of pathogens in source-separated urine, although
many of the treatment steps discussed in this paper are
expected to have an influence on its hygienic properties
(see Table 2).

3.1.2.

Storage

Storage (Fig. 2) offers a possible way of reducing the potential

health risks from faecal pathogens (See Fig. 1 for explanation). Three storage parameters influence this process:
storage time, temperature and pH. Hoglund et al. (1998,
1999, 2000, 2002a/b) investigated the decay rates of bacterial
and viral indicator organisms in stored urine collected from
households. From the inactivation curves for rhesus rotavirus, Campylobacter jejuni and Cryptosporidium parvum, the
authors concluded that if stored at 20 1C for at least 6
months, urine may be considered safe to use as a fertilizer for
any crop (Hoglund et al., 2002b). Their experiments showed
that temperature was the most crucial parameter influencing
the inactivation rates. Without pH control (pH49), 90% of the
rhesus rotavirus were inactivated after 35 days at 20 1C, but no
significant decrease could be detected at 4 1C. Combined with
pH control (see Fig. 3), pH values below 4 seem to result in
additional reduction in the number of pathogens (Hellstrom,
1999). Important side-effects of storing raw source-separated
urine are the precipitation of phosphorus compounds (Udert

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40 (2006) 3151 3166

Fig. 3 Evaporation (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

Fig. 4 Freeze-thaw (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

Fig. 5 Reverse osmosis (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

et al., 2003b) and possible evaporation of ammonia from tanks

that are not sufficiently sealed (Udert et al., 2005a).

3.2.

Volume reduction

3.2.1.

Introduction

From the perspective of commercial fertilisers, the nutrient

content in urine is small: N: 0.9%, P: 0.06%, K: 0.3% (Table 1). It
would be beneficial to concentrate the nutrients for transportation and storage purposes. Various water extraction techniques
have been investigated and developed for long-term manned
space flights (see Wieland, 1994 for an overview and references).

3.2.2.

Evaporation

Evaporation is the most straightforward technology for

removing water from urine (Fig. 3). For space applications,
the focus is on recycling water of the best possible quality.
The following list gives a condensed overview of the
approaches reported in the literature. Most of them are
summarised and referenced in Wieland (1994):

 Vapour compression distillation (VCD) recovers more than

96% of the water content and the energy requirement for a

small-scale unit is 277396 MJ m
3. NASA plans to install

this unit for processing urine in the international space
station in 2005.
Thermoelectric integrated membrane evaporation systems (TIMES). The urine is pre-treated with ozone (or
ideally UV) and sulphuric acid. It is then heated, pumped
through hollow fibre membranes and exposed to reduced
pressure so that it evaporates.
Air evaporation systems (AES). Pre-treated urine is
pumped through a particulate filter to a wick package.
Heated air is used to evaporate the water from the wick,
leaving the solids.
Lyophilization (Holland et al., 1992). Frozen urine sublimates under vacuum and is recovered at
90 1C to
produce ice with a total solid content of 51 mgTSl
1.

The evaporation of urine presents two major challenges: (i)

loss of ammonia and (ii) energy consumption. Ammonia loss
can be avoided by using non-hydrolysed urine or by acidification (see below). The energy consumption can be minimised
by energy recovery. Large-scale thermal desalination plants
use vapour compression distillation (VCD) and can reach
specific energy requirements of 150180 MJ m
3 distiled water

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(Wood, 1982) compared to 2600 MJ m
3 without any energy

recovery. The small-scale space VCD system for about four
adults requires less than 400 MJ m
3, which is equivalent to an
energy recovery of 85%.
In our own laboratory-scale experiments (Mayer, 2002),
non-hydrolysed urine was evaporated at 200 mbar and 78 1C.
A tenfold volume reduction was possible without any crystallisation problems, producing a viscous liquid that contained
9.7% nitrogen by weight.

3.2.3.

Freeze-thaw

Lind et al. (2001) showed that by freezing urine at a

temperature of
14 1C, approximately 80% of the nutrients
can be concentrated in 25% of the original volume (Fig. 4).
Gulyas et al. (2004) confirmed these results by using fallingfilm and stirred-vessel freeze concentrators. Using data from
commercial freeze concentrators, they calculated an energy
consumption of 1100 MJ m
3 for a fivefold volume reduction.
These data indicate that evaporation is more efficient with
respect to energy efficiency and that the freeze-thaw process
will be an option only in places with cheap freezing energy
(a cold climate).

3.2.4.

Reverse osmosis

In reverse osmosis membranes, the retention of ammonium

is better than its uncharged form (ammonia) and therefore
the retention performance depends strongly on the pH (Fig. 5).
Dalhammar (1997) acidified stored urine to pH 7.1 in order to
prevent permeation of ammonia. At a pressure of 50 bar, a
maximum concentration factor of 5 could be achieved,
resulting in the following recoveries of nutrients in the
retentate: ammonium: 70%; phosphate: 73%; potassium:
71%. Similar results were achieved by Thorneby et al. (1999)
in reducing the volume of manure with reverse osmosis.
Fluxes in the range of 2025 l m
2h
1 could be obtained at
30 bar (25 1C). The retention was greater than 98%, except for
ammonia, which was between 93% and 97%. Reverse osmosis
membranes have a high retention for micropollutants (Hofman et al., 1997) so that no separation between nutrients and
micropollutants can be expected in this process. The energy
consumption depends on operational and technical parameters and energy recovery systems can be installed in largescale applications (Avlonitis et al., 2003).
A limiting factor for the application may be the precipitation of salts on or in the membrane, a phenomenon known as
scaling (Migliorini and Luzzo, 2004). In order to control
scaling, chemical formulations based on acids, surfactants or
combinations of both can be added (Jaffer, 1994; Al-Rammah,

3157

2000). The required dosages of these agents must be

determined experimentally as a function of the concentration
factor.

3.3.

Stabilisation

3.3.1.

Introduction

Fresh urine contains salts, soluble organic matter and

ammonia bound in urea (Table 1). After microbial contamination, organic matter is degraded and urea hydrolysed.
Hydrolysis of urea releases ammonia and causes a pH
increase to about 9.2, resulting in more volatile NH3 and
precipitation of compounds with low solubility. True stabilisation of urine would thus prevent (i) degradation of organic
matter (causing odour), (ii) precipitation processes (clogging
pipes) and (iii) volatilisation of NH3 (with a number of
negative effects on air quality during storage, transport and
application of liquid fertilizer). Since microbial activity
triggers all these processes, prevention of microbial growth
would be the ultimate stabilisation process. Acidification,
microfiltration and ultrafiltration have been suggested to
achieve this, but only acidification has been studied in detail.
Information is available from the literature on urease
inhibitors to prevent urea hydrolysis, but Benini et al. (1999)
found that the reported efficiencies are low and negative side
effects have to be considered.

3.3.2.

Acidification

A way of preventing urea hydrolysis is to keep the pH in the

collection tank below 4 (Hellstrom, 1999). Experiments

1
showed that 60 mmolH l
1
urine of a strong acid (e.g. 2:9 g lurine
of concentrated sulphuric acid) successfully keeps the pH
below 4 for more then 250 days and prevents hydrolysis of
urea (Fig. 6).
The side effects of acidification are positive with respect to
hygiene due to detrimental effects on pathogenic organisms
at pH values below 4 (Hellstrom, 1999). Low pH values can also
have an impact on pharmaceuticals present in the urine. At
pH 2, an inactivation level of between 50% and 95% could be
found for antibiotics (sulfamethazin, sulfamethoxazol, tetracyclin) and the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac (Butzen et
al., 2005).
The prevention of urine hydrolysis is much more economical than subsequent neutralisation. The neutralisation of
already hydrolysed urine requires 230 mmolH l
1
urine (e.g.
of
concentrated
sulphuric
acid),
approximately
11:3 g l
1
urine
four times more than preventive acid addition.

Fig. 6 Acidification (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

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Fig. 7 Partial nitrification (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

Fig. 8 Struvite (MgNH4PO4) (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

3.3.3.

Partial nutrification

Nitrification is a suitable method for lowering the pH. Since

no other relevant buffers are present in urine in significant
concentrations, nitrification of urine can only oxidise half the
available ammonium until nitrification stops due to low pH
conditions. High nitrite concentrations and low pH have a
specific detrimental effect on nitrite oxidisers, due to their
sensitivity to nitrous oxide (e.g. Hunik et al., 1993). Complete
conversion of ammonia to nitrite is therefore often inhibited,
depending on the operational conditions. Experimental
results by Johansson and Hellstrom (1999) and Udert et al.
(2003c) confirm that the product of urine nitrification is either
an ammonium-nitrate or ammonium-nitrite solution with an
approximate 1:1 composition (Fig. 7).
Due to high concentrations in urine (mainly of salt,
ammonia and nitrous acid, see Udert et al., 2003c for a
detailed discussion), inhibition affects nitrification and makes
a continuously operated technical process sensitive to
instabilities. A more detailed overview of the nitrifier kinetics
can be found in Hellinga et al. (1999) and Van Hulle (2005). An
attractive alternative for converting nitrite to nitrate is by
chemical oxidation with oxygen at low pH values (Udert et al.,
2005b).
Udert et al. (2003c) operated three continuous laboratory
systems: A moving-bed biological reactor (MBBR), a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and a continuously stirred reactor
(CSTR). Only the MBBR system was capable of producing
ammonium nitrate as a final product. The measured conversion rates were 380 gN m
3 d
1 (25.3 1C) at steady state. The
other two systems produced stable ammonium nitrite even at
high sludge ages or hydraulic residence times respectively.
The measured nitrite formation rates were 790 gN m
3 d
1
(30 1C; HRT 4.8 d) for the CSTR and 280 gN m
3 d
1 (24.5 1C;
HRT 4 d; SRT430 d) for the SBR. Because the inhibition
kinetics are not yet fully understood, it is important for

practical purposes to monitor the nitrification process carefully. This can easily be done in technical systems by feeding
the system in such a way that the pH does not get too high or
too low. The product of these efforts is a stable solution
without the typical urine smell and with no easily degradable
substances.

3.4.

P-recovery

3.4.1.

Introduction

Phosphate is produced from phosphate rock, a limited

resource. The estimated worldwide reserves range from 1.2
to 5  1010 tons, which would suffice for 50300 years (Steen
and Steen, 1998; results also in Driver et al., 1999; Zapata and
Roy, 2005), depending on the assumed consumption scenario.
At the moment, the depletion of phosphorus reserves is less
of a concern than the decrease in their quality (and therefore
increase in price) and the strategic considerations of the
worlds phosphorus producers. If no new sources of highquality phosphate are identified, future phosphorus reserves
will contain less phosphate and higher levels of enrichment
by heavy metals, principally cadmium (Driver et al., 1999;
Smil, 2000; Isherwood, 2000).
Extensive reviews of phosphorus removal and recovery
technologies from liquid wastes are given in Brett et al. (1997),
Wilsenach and Van Loosdrecht (2002), Valsami-Jones (2004),
and De-Bashan and Bashan (2004). Many of the processes
described, especially those for the treatment of digester
supernatant, are also applicable to urine.
In the literature on phosphate recovery, precipitation of
struvite seems to be the predominant product, followed by
calcium phosphate. Udert et al. (2003b) investigated scales in
urine collection systems and reported struvite, calcium
phosphate (hydroxyapatite) and calcite as the predominant
forms of precipitation. Despite the many P-recovery options,

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3159

Fig. 9 Ion exchange (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

Fig. 10 Ammonia stripping (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

only struvite precipitation can be found in the literature on

P-recovery from urine.

3.4.2.

Struvite (MgNH4PO4)

Magnesium ammonium phosphate (MgNH4PO4  6H2O), also

known as struvite, MAP or AMP, is an attractive precipitate
because it conveys two dominant wastewater nutrients in
solid form (Fig. 8). Additionally, the product can be used as a
slow-release fertiliser (Bridger et al., 1961; Johnston and
Richards, 2003). Gaterell et al. (2000) suggest the conversion
of struvite into an enhanced struvite that contains two parts
of a slow-release fertiliser (magnesium phosphate, MgHPO4)
and one part of the easily soluble ammonium phosphate
((NH4)2HPO4): this product is claimed to have good market
potential. Technical struvite precipitation was extensively
investigated for the removal of N and P from digester
supernatant (e.g. Wu and Bishop, 2005), animal waste slurries
(e.g. Suzuki et al., 2002) and for the treatment of wastewater,
landfill leachate and abattoir effluent.
The pH of hydrolysed urine is optimal for struvite precipitation (Buchanan et al., 1994) and therefore no pH
adjustment is required. The precipitation is triggered by the
addition of magnesium, usually in the form of MgO, Mg(OH)2,
MgCl2 or bittern (the magnesium-rich brine from table-salt
production). As shown in Table 1, there is much more
ammonium than phosphate present in urine on a molar
basis. As a consequence, about 3% of the nitrogen can be
eliminated by magnesium addition only so that the effect on
the pH value is small. Ronteltap et al. (2006) investigated the
conditional solubility product and the equilibrium reactions
for urine. The simplified solubility product was determined
with [Mg]  [NH+4 +NH3]  [Portho] 10
7.6 M3 (pH 9 and a ionic
strength 0.68), where [Mg] is the concentration of dissolved
magnesium, [NH+4 +NH3] the measured ammonium+ammonia, and [Portho] the dissolved ortho-phosphate. See also

Ronteltap et al. (2003) for an overview of the published

solubility products for struvite.
No relevant information is given about the kinetics of
struvite precipitation in urine. From the fact that stored urine
contains a plethora of fine particles such as micro-organisms
and precipitation products (Hoglund et al., 1998; Udert et al.,
2003b), it can be concluded that heterogeneous nucleation
could play a dominant role in the formation of struvite
crystals. Our own experience with urine shows that precipitation in batch experiments is fast and without any
perceivable lag.

3.5.

N-recovery

3.5.1.

Introduction

Processes for the production of nitrogen fertiliser are based

on the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen in the Haber-Bosch
process. Depletion of resources does not therefore play a
major role in evaluating the environmental benefits of
nitrogen recovery processes, energy consumption being the
main parameter. An overview of current nitrogen recycling
technologies in general wastewater treatment is given in
Rulkens et al. (1998) and Maurer et al. (2002); corresponding
energy consumptions are summarised in Maurer et al. (2003).

3.5.2.

Ion exchange

An ion exchanger with a high affinity for ammonium is

clinoptilolite, a naturally occurring zeolite, and polymeric
macronet exchangers have recently also become available
which are suitable for this purpose (Jorgensen and Weatherley, 2003) (Fig. 9). Both materials as well as other zeolites
have been tested for the treatment of waste water effluents
(Liberti et al., 1981), and zeolites have been tested for the
removal of ammonia from urine, also combined with the
addition of MgO for recovering phosphate in the form of
struvite (Lind et al., 2000; Ban and Dave, 2004). The highest

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Fig. 11 Anammox process (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

Fig. 12 Electrodialysis (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

recovery rates were obtained at an MgO dosage of 0.5 mg/l and

a zeolite dosage of 15 g/l. The remaining supernatant
concentrations for P and N were 10 gP m
3 and 1000 gN m
3,
respectively.

3.5.3.

Ammonia stripping

Stored urine was stripped under vacuum (0.4 bar, 40 1C) and
the gas stream was adsorbed in water at a pressure of 5 bar
and 20 1C (Behrendt et al., 2001). The resulting product
contains 10% ammonia and is unstable at normal pressure.
No information is provided on the concentration of ammonia
remaining in the urine solution after stripping (Fig. 10).
Energy consumptions can be estimated from experiments
with digester supernatant (Siegrist, 1996). At 20 1C and 95%
ammonia removal, the energy consumption was reported to
be around 7 kWh m
3
treated liquid. Vapour Phase Catalytic Ammonia Removal (VAPCAR) combines vaporisation with hightemperature catalytic oxidation of ammonia and other
volatile compounds. A two-step catalytic process is used to
produce nitrogen gas, carbon dioxide and water (Slavin and
Oleson, 1991).

3.5.4.

Isobutylaldehyde-diurea (IBDU) precipitation

In fresh, non-hydrolysed urine, nitrogen is mainly present in

the form of urea. Urea forms a complex with isobutyraldehyde (IBU), resulting in the precipitation of isobutylaldehydediurea (IBDU), a commercially available slow-release fertilizer.
Its industrial production requires a high urea concentration
(Behrendt et al. 2001, Reinhart, 2002) and even at these
concentrations an excess of urea or IBU results only in partial
complexation, so that relatively high fractions of urea remain
in the liquid phase after treatment. Production at the urea
concentration of approximately 1% present in urine is therefore not feasible (Reinhart, 2002). Experimental results with
urine confirm this statement (Behrendt et al. 2001). At a five-

fold stoichiometric excess of IBU, about 75% conversion of

urea was obtained.

3.6.

Nutrient removal (P and N)

3.6.1.

Introduction

If the aim of urine treatment is improved control of water

pollution, it may be desirable to remove N and P without
recovering them. Whereas biological P-removal has never
been considered for the treatment of source-separated urine,
full nitrification can easily be achieved with an extension to
partial nitrification (see above). Denitrification (resulting in
N2) may be achieved in a number of ways: biological reduction
of nitrate with organic matter as the electron donor; biological
oxidation of ammonia with nitrite as the electron acceptor
(the anammox process) or electrochemical oxidation of
ammonia (NASA 1977). Of these technologies, the anammox
process has been studied in detail for urine.

3.6.2.

Anammox Process

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) is a biological

process designed to eliminate nitrogen independently of a
carbon source (Strous et al., 1998) (Fig. 11). Under anaerobic
conditions, ammonium and nitrite are converted mainly to
nitrogen gas. As reported in Fig. 7, the formation of nitrite
stops halfway through the process, producing a 1:1 ammonium/nitrite solution. Udert et al. (2003c) added this solution
to anammox sludge from a pilot plant treating digester
supernatant. At 30 1C they measured a denitrification rate of
1000 gNm
3d
1 and the ratio of total ammonia to nitrite
elimination was 1:1.1870.07. The results of these experiments show that nitrogen can be removed from sourceseparated urine with anammox. A combination of nitrification and anammox reactors could eliminate 7585% of the
nitrogen, leaving an ammonium nitrate solution.

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3.7.

Removal of micropollutants

3.7.1.

Introduction

4 0 (200 6) 315 1 316 6

Increasingly powerful analytical methods mean that a large

number of pharmaceuticals and natural hormones from the
human metabolism are now detected in the aquatic environment, but their environmental relevance is currently unclear.
Most of the effects that can be observed, e.g. the formation of
vitellogenin (a precursor of egg yolk proteins) in male trout
(Harries et al., 1997), are chronic effects without clear
consequences for the affected organism. It is generally
recognised that urine contains a significant amount of
excreted micropollutants. In general, a distinction must be
made between separation and elimination processes. The
separation of nutrients and micropollutants is relevant to the
production of a urine-based fertilizer, whereas the micropollutants must be eliminated for water-pollution control.
Separation processes are primarily based on membranes or
precipitation whereas removal processes are based on oxidation or adsorption (Larsen et al., 2004).
In addition to the processes presented here, it is possible in
principle to remove micropollutants by adsorption to active
carbon or other adsorbents. It can be expected that the
presence of high amounts of COD in urine strongly interfere
with the adsorption process (Quinlivan et al., 2005).

3.7.2.

Electrodialysis

Electrodialysis membranes are ion-exchange membranes

made of functionalised polymers with a dense structure
(Strathmann 1992) enabling salts to be extracted and concentrated (Fig. 12). The apparent pore size is typically around
200 Da (Kim et al. 2003) so that these membranes can
potentially retain micropollutants. Investigations showed
that electrodialysis may be used to selectively extract the
nutrients into a concentrated product stream while retaining
the micropollutants (pharmaceuticals) in the diluate (Pronk et
al., 2006a). Experiments with bipolar membranes were carried

3161

out (Pronk et al. 2006b) in order to manipulate the pH.

Ammonia was transferred across a hydrophobic membrane
from the basic into the acid concentrate. Batch experiments
confirmed that a pH decrease occurred in the acid concentrate, also known as the product compartment. However, at
higher conversions the pH rose again to its original value.
This pH increase can be attributed to carbon dioxide
transported from the basic concentrate across the gas-filled
membrane into the acid concentrate (Pronk et al. 2006b). The
use of an ammonium-selective gas-transfer membrane
instead of a hydrophobic gas-transfer membrane should in
principle solve this problem, but this has not yet been
investigated.

3.7.3.

Nanofiltration

Nanofiltration (Fig. 13) has been tested for the retention of a

range of environmentally relevant compounds such as
pesticides (Van der Bruggen et al., 2001), disinfection byproducts and pharmaceutical compounds (Kimura et al.,
2004), phthalates (Kiso et al. 2001) and natural steroid
hormones (Nghiem et al. 2004). For production of a urinebased fertilizer, it is important for the micropollutants to be
retained and for mineral salts to be permeated in order to
obtain a product free of micropollutants. The removal of
micropollutants was tested with different nanofiltration
membranes (Pronk et al. 2006c). The efficiency of the
separation process depends strongly on the pH, demonstrating that electrostatic interactions with the membrane play
an important role in the separation of micropollutants.
Under optimised conditions, the removal rate of a set of
hormones and pharmaceutical compounds in urine exceeds
92% (Pronk et al. 2006c). Furthermore, it was shown that the
permeation of urea is almost complete, while 5080% of
the ammonia was retained, depending on the pH (Fig. 13). In
order to obtain high nitrogen recoveries, therefore, it is
important to use non-hydrolysed urine (see also Section
Urine Stabilisation).

Fig. 13 Nanofiltration (see Fig. 1 for explanation).

Fig. 14 Ozonation and advanced oxidation.

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3.7.4.

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40 (2006) 3151 3166

Ozonation and advanced oxidation

Micropollutants can be oxidised with chlorine, chlorine

dioxide, ozone (O3), or OH radicals (advanced oxidation
processes, AOPs, see Prousek, 1996). In the case of ozone,
the reaction can take place directly with ozone or with the
secondary oxidants (e.g. OH-radicals) formed during ozonation (Von Gunten 2003a; Von Gunten 2003b). In view of the
high COD content of urine (210 g/l, see Table 1), oxidants
reacting specifically with micropollutants are preferred. As
most of the compounds tested show enhanced reactivity
towards ozone (Huber et al. 2003), use of ozone seems to be
preferable to advanced oxidation processes because a larger
fraction of the oxidant (OH radical) is lost to the matrix in the
latter (Fig. 14). From recent investigations with urine, it was
concluded that complete oxidation of a representative set of
micropollutants including pharmaceuticals and synthetic
hormones may be achieved (Pronk et al., 2006d). Despite the
quenching of oxidants by the organic matrix in urine, it was
shown that all the tested compounds could be transformed
completely. At an ozone dose of 1.1 g/l, fast-reacting compounds such as ethinylestradiol were completely removed,
while removal of more recalcitrant compound such as
ibuprofen was 80% (Pronk et al, 2006d). Analysis of the results
showed that oxidation took place directly by ozone as well as
by OH radicals. Considering the high reactivity of the OH
radicals with most organic micropollutants, ozonation can be
regarded as a suitable method for removing a wide range of
micropollutants from urine.

4.

Conclusions and outlook

In this paper, we have reviewed a number of unit processes

for treating human urine with respect to seven different
purposes: hygienisation, volume reduction, stabilisation, Precovery, N-recovery, nutrient removal and handling of
micropollutants. The review concentrates on processes that
have actually been tested with human urine at least on a
laboratory scale. Most of the urine treatment options found in
the literature are adapted from existing technologies and
have also been applied to other waste streams. However, the
unique chemical properties of urine make adaptation of
existing processes almost always inevitable. An example is
nitrification, where the conversion of nitrite to nitrate is
mostly inhibited and therefore makes the application of the
anammox process relatively simple.
Our evaluation made clear that a very large number of
technical options are available, with different strengths and
weaknesses. However, all seven purposes cannot be achieved
with a single unit process. Whether the aim is to concentrate
on a specific purpose such as nutrient removal or to combine
different process units to achieve a more comprehensive goal
depends on the circumstances and is not discussed in this
paper.
Hygienisation: Since actual effectiveness has only been
shown for storage, it is difficult to draw any final conclusions.
However, other processes will also be effective: membrane
processes (except for reverse osmosis), evaporation at high
temperature, acidification and biological processes all have

the potential to produce a hygienic product, but further

studies are required.
Volume reduction: Precipitation processes obviously represent the most efficient measures of volume reduction,
reducing the water content to a few percent. Evaporation is
almost as effective, resulting in a water content of 510%,
whereas freeze-thaw, electrodialysis and reverse osmosis are
considerably less effective.
Stabilisation: The most effective stabilisation processes are
acidification and biological processes: they prevent not only
ammonia evaporation but also the typical urine odour.
Struvite precipitation is quite efficient because it produces a
mineral product with little water and a low content of organic
material. Membrane processes (micro and nanofiltration plus
electrodialysis) are effective in preventing further microbial
growth, but require additional measures to prevent odour and
urea hydrolysis by the hydrolysing enzymes already present
in the dissolved urea.
P-recovery: We define a process as a P-recovery technique if
(a) a volume reduction has taken place and (b) the phosphorus is concentrated in a small volume. Consequently, the
relevant processes are struvite precipitation, the processes
recorded under volume reduction and electrodialysis, all of
them with a phosphorus recovery rate of between 90% and
100%.
N-recovery: We define N-recovery in an equivalent way to Precovery. N-recovery actually takes place in a large number of
processes, but with different yields. At least 90% recovery is
achieved with evaporation, electrodialysis, reverse osmosis
and struvite precipitation (with stoichiometric phosphate
addition). Between 80% and 90% recovery is achieved with
the freeze-thaw process and most likely with ammonia
stripping. An N-recovery of between 60% and 80% is achieved
with reverse osmosis, ion exchange with zeolite and IBDU
precipitation with a five-fold excess of IBU.
Nutrient removal: Only biological processes have been tested
for nutrient elimination. A nitrogen removal efficiency of
7580% is obtained with a combination of partial nitrification
and the annamox process.
Handling of micropollutants: separation from nutrients and
removal: Only chemical oxidation has so far proved effective
for the actual removal of micropollutants from urine, and this
is not entirely beyond doubt. Much work remains to be done.
Results from biological oxidation are still outstanding.
Struvite precipitation, ammonia stripping and nanofiltration
have proved to be highly effective for the separation of
micropollutants and nutrients. IBDU precipitation and electrodialysis are only partially effective; electrodialysis optimisation is proceeding.
Energy consumption: Besides the technical description of the
various options, we also estimated the effectiveness and
energy consumption of these processes. It is obvious that we
had to make a number of assumptions because very few of
these processes have actually been optimised for full-scale
application. As an example, we assumed realistic but
challenging energy recovery schemes resulting in estimated
energy requirements mostly in the order of 20100 MJ m
3
(without the energy used to construct the treatment device),
with a few exceptions. If we assume a production of 2 l
urine per day and person (including flushing water), this

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4 0 (200 6) 315 1 316 6

corresponds to approximately 0.52.5 W per person. This is

within a reasonable range compared to the approximately
4 W per person that we currently apply for nitrification in an
ordinary wastewater treatment plant. A number of other
relevant aspects such as cost and robustness were not
discussed.
The review shows clearly that a wide range of technical
options is available for the effective treatment of collected
urine. Depending on the overall goal of the treatment process,
a specific technical solution or a combination of solutions can
be found to meet the requirements. Additional research is
needed to find promising process combinations that can do
the job in a realistic urine source-separation scenario. Many
of the techniques described in this paper need some sort of
pre-treatment (e.g. evaporation) or only deal with a specific
problematic fraction in the urine (e.g. struvite precipitation).
Urine treatment solutions will most probably consist of a
combination of treatment processes. An example is the
recovery of phosphate by struvite precipitation followed by
a biological process designed to eliminate the organic
pollutants and nitrogen. This enhanced flexibility for urban
wastewater treatment is one of the great benefits of urine
source separation and makes the development of processes
for urine treatment attractive. However, it is impossible to
discuss process combinations without a scenario as context
and since an explicit discussion of scenarios would go way
beyond the scope of this review, a second publication dealing
with this issue is in preparation.
A general assessment of NoMix technology is not possible
on the basis of process engineering technology alone.
However, as we have shown in this paper, the limitations
for NoMix technology will not be found in a lack of NoMix
process engineering options. In most cases, our expectation
that such technologies might be too energy intensive has not
come true either. Although other problems connected to
NoMix technology may be more difficult to solve, one should
not underestimate the efforts of research and development of
NoMix process engineering technologies. Except for evaporation and storage, none of the processes described have yet
advanced beyond the laboratory stage. Considerable development work remains to be done in order to enhance urineprocessing techniques into marketable products.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Urs von Gunten and Detleff
Knappe for their input with respect to the unit operations of
oxidation and activated carbon.
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