Developing ideas that convert our golden human waste into useful nutrients to grow food.
Helping Australia become the world leader in a new circular economy
The ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy (NiCE) will make Australia the world leader in a new circular economy, based on nutrient recycling through the separation, collection and processing of human urine into safe and effective fertilisers. It will use an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to create the technical and social know-how, the business models and the regulatory frameworks needed for the uptake of this circular economy concept.
The Hub’s outcomes will directly benefit Australia’s water utilities, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors. Urine recycling can save up to 50% of sewage treatment operating costs and avoid costly capital upgrades. New technology (toilet designs, sensors and membrane processes for urine) will create new opportunities for Australia’s manufacturing sector.
The ARC Nice hub has successfully developed two technologies to convert human urine to safe and nutrient-rich compound fertilisers. The two fertilisers are named UrVAL and UGOLD.
Visit the cross-institutional collaborative ARC NiCE Hub website
Our research focus
We are a research hub that brings together researchers from multidisciplinary fields, and we work towards building a circular economy for nutrients to grow our food.
ARC NiCE Hub Plan diagram -text only version
For the first time in Australia, the NiCE Hub will take a holistic approach to tackling the challenge of urban, decentralised processing of human urine to fertilisers, tailored for Australian conditions. It will engage all end-users across the system to jointly establish acceptable technologies, practices and products; planning, installation and operational guidelines; understanding of the impacts on current infrastructure; and a viable business model based on a whole-of system economic assessment.
With targeted Circular Economy Initiatives that will enable us to recover plant nutrients as cost-effectively as possible, the NiCE hub will be delivering at four different technological knowledge phases:
- Developing and proposing urine collection technologies by working with toilet manufacturers, urban developers, product regulators and plant operators to design, communicate, learn and engage in strategies to discover the needs of Australian stakeholders and to understand the implications for them of a decentralised system of separating urine.
- Investigating and improving processes to convert urine into fertiliser by affiliating with process regulators, water utilities, councils and technology providers to design the technology (processing and product), along with planning, installation and operational guidelines, to meet end-user needs. Also, to assess the effect of source-separation on the operation of sewer networks & wastewater treatment plants.
- Deliver the fundamental science and technology to understand how to improve the chemical composition of fertilisers, to optimise fertilisers formulation and to assess the safety of fertiliser for reuse (micropollutants, antibiotic resistance, PFAS hazards).
- Demonstrate the application of plant nutrients reclaimed from urine streams diverted at the source and processed into safe, effective fertilisers tailored for Australian conditions. Working with industry regulators to approve and use the fertiliser on turf, in parks and gardens, agriculture, horticulture and indoor/outdoor green walls.
Benefits
The ARC NiCE hub whole system economics Plan will deliver the following benefits:
- Recover plant nutrients from urine
- Demonstrate technologies and disseminate knowledge
- Present urine diversion and nutrient recovery as a viable technology
- Achieve financial and energy savings in waste water treatment processes by adopting smart technologies to separate and recover nutrients at the source
- Promote cooperation and encourage innovative research, teaching and learning
- Showcase the importance of nutrients recovery in a circular economy to promote green economic recovery
- Fulfil community, industry, and government expectations.
UTS is the host University of the Australian Research Council for Nutrients in a Circular Economy and is the first University to implement urine diversion, collection and processing to fertiliser in its Sydney CBD - City Campus.