Turn urine into bricks to build houses
Urine combined with sand and bacteria will create a new construction material, harder than limestone bricks.
RT news agency reported that scientists at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) have created a special type of environmentally friendly brick. The young research team collected urine from the men's toilet of the engineering faculty inside the school, then mixed it with sand and bacteria that produce the enzyme urease.
The bacterial carbon precipitation process allowed the mixture to solidify at room temperature, unlike conventional bricks that had to be fired in high-temperature kilns at 1,400 degrees Celsius, releasing a lot of CO2. Specifically, the enzyme urease decomposed the urea in urine, while simultaneously producing calcium carbonate through a chemical reaction.
“The longer you leave the little bacteria to work, the harder the brick will be. We can optimize this process,” said lead researcher Dyllon Randall.
The hardness and shape of bio-bricks can be changed at will. In particular, this building material is 40% harder than limestone bricks.
Furthermore, the process of producing bio-bricks produces by-products such as nitrogen and potassium, which can be used to produce fertilizer.
According to researcher Randall, urine is “liquid gold”. In quantity, urine accounts for less than 1% of household wastewater, but it contains up to 80% of nitrogen, 56% of phosphorus and 63% of potassium in wastewater.
