Aged Urine Fertilizer, Water Batteries, & Salty Rice

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Now on to the good stuff...

Urine, like other goodies in wastewater, doesn't have to be a 'throwaway' substance.

Researchers at the University of Michigan received a grant to study the benefits of creating a fertilizer made from urine that's been stored for upwards of a year - with great success.

Meanwhile, the Swiss have developed a massive water battery, and Japanese farmers are growing a new crop of rice in ultra salty soil; a unique method of agriculture after tsunamis wreaked havoc on their farmland.

This month:?

1. How aged urine might be the next big thing in agriculture
2. Switzerland opens the world's first water battery
3. Your chicken fried rice is about to get a little more salty

BONUS: a friend sent me a link to this gag gift as an idea for your water loving friends

First: Is old urine nature's best fertilizer?

University of Michigan researchers received a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to covert human urine into a safe fertilizer for agricultural crops. According to the research, recycled and aged human urine can be used as a fertilizer with low risks of transferring antibiotic resistant DNA to the environment.

U-M leads the?nation’s largest consortium of researchers?exploring the technology, systems requirements and social attitudes associated with urine-derived fertilizers.

Nothing says research like storing pee in sealed containers

Over the last several years, the group has studied the removal of bacteria, viruses, and pharmaceuticals in urine to improve the safety of urine-derived fertilizers.

It’s a key finding in efforts to identify more sustainable alternatives to widely used fertilizers that contribute to water pollution. High levels of nitrogen and phosphorus can spur the growth of algae, which can threaten our sources of drinking water.

In this new study, researchers have shown that the practice of “aging” collected urine in sealed containers over several months effectively deactivates 99% of antibiotic resistant genes that were present in bacteria in the urine.

“Based on our results, we think that microorganisms in the urine break down the extracellular DNA in the urine very quickly,” said Krista Wigginton, U-M associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "That means that if bacteria in the collected urine are resistant to antibiotics and the bacteria die, as they do when they are stored in urine, the released DNA won’t pose a risk of transferring resistance to bacteria in the environment when the fertilizer is applied.”

"...because it's sterile and I like the taste." - Patches O'Houlihan

Urine contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium—key nutrients that plants need to grow. Municipal treatment systems don’t always remove these nutrients from wastewater before it’s released into rivers and streams. At the same time, manufacturing synthetic fertilizer is expensive and energy intensive.

Previous research has shown that antibiotic-resistant DNA can be found in urine, raising the question of whether fertilizers derived from it might carry over that resistance.

The researchers collected urine from more than 100 men and women and stored it for 12 to 16 months. During that period, ammonia levels in the urine increase, lowering acidity levels and killing most of the bacteria that the donors shed.

When the ammonia kills the bacteria, they dump their DNA into the solution. It’s these extracellular snippets of DNA that the researchers studied to see how quickly they would break down.

The future is winkling, and it's happening from tinkling

Urine has been utilized as a crop fertilizer for thousands of years but has been getting a closer look in recent years as a way to create a circular nutrient economy. It could enable manufacturing of fertilizers in a more environmentally friendly way, reduce the energy required to manage nutrients at wastewater treatment plants, and create localized fertilizer sources.

“There are two main reasons we think urine fertilizer is the way of the future,” Wigginton said. “Our current agricultural system is not sustainable, and the way we address nutrients in our wastewater can be much more efficient.”

In their ongoing work, the U-M-lead team is moving towards agricultural settings.

“We are doing field experiments to assess technologies that process urine into a safe and sustainable fertilizer for food crops and other plants, like flowers. So far, our experimental results are quite promising,” said Nancy Love, the Borchardt and Glysson Collegiate Professor and professor of civil and environmental engineering at U-M.

Next: A new kind of Energizer Bunny is in town

It's taken Switzerland €2 billion and 14 years, but the country's underground "water battery" is now complete and operational. The project took so long to complete in part because workers had to tunnel through more than 11 miles of the Swiss Alps.

A hydro battery is comprised of two large bodies of water at different heights – in this instance, they are located nearly 2,000 feet below ground between the Emosson and Vieux Emosson dams in Valais.

But how does it all work, Basil?

Excess energy can be used to pump water from the lower basin to the higher pool. When power demand increases, water in the higher pool is allowed to flow back into the lower reservoir. As the water flows, it spins turbines which generate hydroelectric power.

The power plant features six pump turbines that can generate 900 MW of power. The facility was constructed by?Nant de Drance?and is capable of storing 20 million kWh of electricity, which should help stabilize Switzerland's energy grid.

But even water batteries aren't as cool as some others...

Renewable energy enthusiasts have been doing a lot of outside-the-box thinking.

Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) shared plans for a gravity-based system that would use?elevators?in high-rise buildings to generate and store electricity. A company in Finland has created a battery that uses?sand?to store electricity as heat. And BMW is toying with cylindrical batteries.?

And finally: could you please pass the salt? ...I mean rice

Researchers from Tohoku University and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) have developed salt-resistant rice plants in Osaki, where farmland was damaged by sea water following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

In May of this year, students and local farmers planted rice seedlings in experimental rice paddies. They used two types of Indica rice - a type widely grown in Southeast Asia and Africa - planting a standard strain and a salty soil-tolerant strain developed by the group. Similar numbers of seedlings were planted, and the yield and quality of the two types were later examined and compared.

The researchers found that the roots of the modified Indica rice plants “sat” on top of the soil as opposed to extending into the ground like the standard type. Salt makes soil more clay-like, which reduces oxygen levels and makes it difficult for plant roots to absorb water, thereby affecting growth.

With the roots growing on top of the soil, however, the modified rice was less prone to be affected by the soil’s condition.

Hard working farmers always need new genes

Incorporating the gene to encourage roots to grow on top of the soil was key in developing the modified rice strain. The gene derives from an Indonesian rice type. By utilizing this gene in a different rice variety through cross-fertilization, researchers make possible to change the way the roots grow.

“I’m looking forward to the autumn harvest and witnessing the power of a rice developed after the quake,” said 73-year-old Tadashi Sato, a Tohoku University researcher who has been played a central role in the study.

Necessity is the mother of innovation?

The 2011 tsunami flooded 21,480 hectares of coastal farmland, badly damaging the soil due to the water’s salt content. The area included 10% of Miyagi Prefecture’s arable land.

Sato was an associate professor at the university at that time and recalls seeing fish swimming in paddies along the prefectural coast after the quake. He was subsequently inundated with questions relating to flooded farmland, such as how to mitigate the damage and how long it would take to do so.

When salt damages rice paddies, holes must be dug to improve drainage. The holes are then repeatedly flushed with clean water to eliminate the salt. These steps took two years to complete in the prefecture. Some farmers in the affected areas decided to stop farming altogether and use their land for other purposes.

“To prevent a decrease in farming households, we need to find ways to resume quickly growing crops,” Sato recalled thinking.?

Thanks to his studies, Sato knew that some rice breeds in Southeast Asia and other locations have different root systems than those usually found in Japan. He developed a modified strain using genes from the Indonesian type, and in 2014 they trialed the new Sasanishiki rice. As a result, they found that seedlings with the gene produced a 15% higher yield than non-altered seedlings when planted in saline soil.

The new rice might be coming to a table near you

As the soil has generally recovered from the tsunami, the research group is now looking overseas to make the most of their new idea.

Salt damage often occurs in rice paddies in coastal parts of Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and Bangladesh. In Vietnam, for example, a decrease in the Mekong River’s flow during the dry season caused sea water to flow upstream from the river’s mouth. As a result, 1.8 million hectares of rice-growing land faces possible salt damage.

Chronic salt damage makes it difficult to “repair” soil as in Osaki. It is, however, possible to reduce the impact of damage by adopting genetically altered strains of rice.

The research group is now considering collaborating with overseas researchers to speed adoption of the new salt-resistant gene in local rice strains.

“I’d be happy if we could contribute to the world’s future by using our technology, which was developed as a result of the difficulties farmers faced after the quake,” Sato said.

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