Sophia Safa Rose Hills
Converting Urine into Fertilizer Using an Ion Exchange Reactor
Nitrogen pollution is an increasing threat to ecosystems, often driving algae blooms that kill fish and degrade waterways. A well known contributor to this nutrient pollution is fertilizer runoff from agricultural spaces, but there is a lesser-known contributor– improperly treated human waste. Although urine makes up less than 1% of flow exiting a wastewater treatment plant, it accounts for about 80% of the nitrogen load discharged into surrounding water bodies. As populations grow and nitrogen discharge limits tighten, there is an increasing demand for innovative nitrogen treatment technologies, one such method involves separating and recovering nitrogen from urine at the source. In the Nelson Lab, we are evaluating ion exchange technology to capture nitrogen from urine using charged resins and convert the nitrogen into fertilizer using an autonomous reactor prototype. My research goal focuses on optimizing the operating conditions for resin regeneration— how many times can the resin be reused before it loses adsorption capacity?
Message To Sponsor
Thank you to the donors and the Rose Hills Foundation for your support this summer! Your funding allows me to continue exploring my research passion and help advance our reactor towards real-world implementation. I am excited to contribute to engineering solutions for nitrogen pollution and develop as a researcher.