Rich Earth Summit 2023
Rich Earth Summit 2023 successfully concluded as a hybrid event from 7-9th November! It was a fantastic opportunity to exchange ideas and witness global advancements in peecycling.
Full recordings now accessible via link below! Explore the latest research and applications in urine treatment for agriculture, including virtual tours of processing facilities worldwide! 🌐🚽
Rich Earth Summit 2022
Rich Earth Summit 2022 was virtually held on Nov 1-3, to talk and share ideas about urine reclamation including progress in technological research, and the current implementation projects from all over the world!
Watch the full recordings of 3-day summit below.
KEYNOTE
Pipe Dream to Mainstream: Reporting on the Urine Revolution
Chelsea Wald
Science journalist Chelsea Wald is the author of the book Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, 2021) and the Nature feature The urine revolution: how recycling pee could help to save the world (2022). For nearly a decade, she has repeatedly plunged into the topic of toilets, since editors first approached her to write about the latent potential in our stagnating infrastructure. Since then she has traveled to Italy, South Africa, Indonesia, and Haiti, as well as throughout the Netherlands and the United States, in search of the past and future of toilet systems. She has donated her urine to a urine-donation scheme in the Netherlands and visited several urine-diversion projects.
With a degree in astronomy from Columbia University and a master’s in journalism from Indiana University, Chelsea has more than fifteen years of experience in writing about science and the environment. She has won several awards and reporting grants, including from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the European Geosciences Union, and the European Journalism Centre. She cofounded and continues to help coordinate the DC Science Writers Association Newsbrief Awards for short science writing. She lives with her family in the Netherlands, in a region renowned for its water-related innovations.
Community Knowledge & Social Change
-
Initial Findings from Rich Earth’s ‘Urine My Garden’ Community Science Survey
Julia Cavicchi & Tatiana Schreiber, Rich Earth Institute, US
-
Urban Cycles - A Citizen Science Project for sustainable fertilization with urine-based recycling fertilizers in urban gardens in Berlin
Corinna Schröder, Leibniz Institute for Vegetable and Ornamental Plant Cultivation, Germany
-
A glimpse into global sanitation justice initiatives
Sarah Nahar, Syracuse University, US
-
Urban uses of urine as a fertilizer: an field study in France
Marine Legrand, LEESU, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, Research and animation Fellow (OCAPI Program), France
-
Undergraduates Value Learning about Regenerative Sanitation Systems: Insights for Teaching about Urine-derived Fertilizers
Hayley Joyell Smith, University of Georgia & PHLUSH, US & Jamina Shupack, US
Urine Research Facilities - Video Tours
University of Michigan
Stanford University
Cornell University
Progress in Tech Research
Part 1: Contamination Removal
-
Influence of organics removal on pharmaceutical adsorption
Aurea Heusser, Eawag - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Switzerland
-
Feasibility study of powdered activated carbon membrane bioreactor (PAC-MBR) for source-separated urine treatment: a comparison with MBR
Jiaxi Jiang, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia
-
Fate of organic contaminants in electrochemical nitrogen recovery processes treating urine
Anna Kogler, Stanford University, US
-
Removal of antibiotics from nitrified real human urine by GAC
Abdulaziz Almuntashiri, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Progress in Tech Research
Part 2: Resource recovery
-
Compact and high-performance activated carbon incorporated membrane bioreactor with the addition of biofilm carriers
Weonjung Sohn, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
-
Scaling up an electrochemical nitrogen recovery process from lab benchtop to pilot wastewater plant
Kindle Williams, Stanford University, US
-
A hybrid nanofiltration and reverse osmosis process for urine
treatment: Effect on urea recovery and purity
Caitlin Courtney, University of Cape Town, South Africa
-
Bacterial succession in human fecal waste composting
Greg Caporaso & Jeff Meilander, Northern Arizona University, US
-
Urine storage conditions influence nitrogen adsorption and plant uptake in urine-enriched biochars
Elena Bischak, University of California, Merced, US
Implementation Projects
-
ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy (ARC NiCE Hub): project progress and perspectives
Hokyong Shon, Australian Research Council, Australia
-
VunaNexus: examples of large scale applications of urine nitrification
Nadège de Chambrier, VunaNexus AG, Switzerland
-
Urocyclus, Overview of an Ongoing Urine Recycling Project
Valentin Aubois-Liogier, University of Tours, France
-
Nitrification of urine and co-composting of nitrified urine in the zirkulierBAR project
Carsten Beneker, Kreiswerke Barnim GmbH, Germany
-
Lactopi Start: the first European-wide registered microbial biostimulant using urine as growth medium
Julien Saludas, Toopi Organics, France
-
“Pee for the Peonies”: Demonstration of urine-derived fertilizer on peony plants
Juliana Marks, University of Michigan, US
-
Brightwater Tools Urine Pasteurizer
Abe Noe-Hays, Brightwater Tools, US
Urine Diversion Tools
-
LAUFEN Urine-Diverting Toilets
Cristiane Kopp & Marc Richterich, LAUFEN AG, Switzerland
-
P-POD waterless in-wall urinal and other UD systems to reduce pollution on Cape Cod, MA
Earle Barnhart & Hilda Maingay, Green Center, US
-
Urine-Diverting Toilet Design
Jason Kass, Toilets For People, US
-
Enter the Nytrogen cycle with the ORIAZ Solar-Dripper
Robert Cossette, ORIAZ Solar-Dripper, France
-
ODM - Open Design Toilet Mold - The toilet revolution for the bottom of the pyramid
Lotte Kristoferitsch, EOOS NEXT, Austria
Impacts & Decision-Making Tools
-
Ocean Sewage Alliance Knowledge Hub
Kassie Morton, The Nature Conservancy, US
-
Impact of urine diversion and conversion to fertiliser products in Sydney Central Park
Umakanth Badeti, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
-
The potential role of urine separation in improving nutrient circularity in New York City
Lucinda Li, University of Michigan, US
-
Nutrient stocks, flows and balances for the Bolivian agri-food system: Can recycling human urine close the nutrient circularity gap?
Luis Perez-Mercado; Prithvi Simha, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Universidad Mayor de San Simon, Sweden/Bolivia
-
Benefits of urine diversion for rural housing on septic systems
Merilee D. Karr, PHLUSH (Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human), US
-
Egestabase – Navigating technologies for recovery and reuse of plant nutrients from human excreta and wastewater
Jennifer McConville, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden