Assessing the effect

of human urine
in composting

Presented by:
PRAGYA SHRESTHA
NEPAL
1

Outline of the presentation

z Introduction
z Objectives

of the study
z Methodology
z Findings
z Conclusion
z Acknowledgement
2

Introduction
Solid waste management is taken as one of the
burning issue.
Among solid waste, more than 80% is organic.
Hence effective Composting can be the best option
for its management.
ECOSAN, a new toilet system in a field of sanitation
has contribution in SWM.

Introduction (contd..)
ECOSAN
z Urine and faeces diverting
toilet
z concept of reusing human
waste as resource.
z Fertilizer value

Introduction (contd..)
z

Out of the human excreta i.e. faeces and urine, urine has
high nitrogenous fertilizer value than faeces

Despite the fertilizer value of urine, it has several

challenges to replace chemical fertilizer in the

farmland:

Urea in urine degrade rapidly to the gases NH3 and CO2

.

Urine is too strong to apply directly in the field and

should be diluted in order to apply directly in the plants.

Urine is in liquid form and thus is not easy to
transport it as of chemical fertilizer.
5

Introduction (contd..)
From study done in other countries,
Nutrient value of urine can be trapped through
organic composting.
Urine applied compost accelerated the
composting process as well as enhance the
quality of the compost.
In case of Nepal Compost using human urine has
just introduced. Hence detail study has to be done .
6

Objectives of the research

Main Objective
z

To assess the effect of human urine in composting

process.

Other specific objectives

z

To test the quality of compost with and without

urine application

To assess the appropriate dose and splits of

urine application.
7

Methodology
Materials required
10 litre buckets
Vegetables
Straw
Ash
Soil
Old compost
Human urine

z
z

Each bucket was filled with shredded composting materials.

2/3rd volume i.e. the weight of 0.35 kg was filled with
straw and 1/3rd volume i.e. 1.3 kg by vegetable waste, ash
and old compost
8

Methodology (Contd)
Application of urine dose according to different application phases.
Dose

Splits
1 split

2 splits

3 splits

10%
(1 L)

1000 mL

500 mL *2

333mL *3

15%
(1.5 L)

1500 mL

750 mL*2

500 mL *3

20%
(2 L)

2000 mL

1000 mL*2

667 mL *3

NPK value of 0.48 % N, 0.015% P and 0.07% K

9

Methodology (Contd)

10 set of experiments including one controlled sample

3 replications of each sample,
30 set of experiments.
10

Methodology (Contd)
Compost was turned in every 15 days
Temperature was measured daily.
Quality testing
Physico chemical analysis
Maturity test

11

Findings

12

Temperature versus time period in composting

process with different treatments
z

Adding urine to the compost gave higher temperature in

shorter time compared to that of without urine

Among all the treatment, the highest temperature of 46.9

oc on the 8th day was observed in compost with 20%
urine in 3 splits

The highest temperature in the compost without urine

was observed to be 44.2 oc only on the 10th day.

In all the treatments, temperature slowly increased to

certain level and slowly decreased after about two weeks
and then reached around the ambient temperature.
13

Temperature Pattern
Graph I: Temperature pattern in 10% urine
ambient
0
I (20)
II (20)
III (20)

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
0

10

15

Graph II: Temperature pattern in 15 % urine

ambient

50

45

20Days

25

30

35

Graph III: Temperature pattern in 20% urine

ambient
0
I (20)
II (20)
III (20)

50
45

Temperature (oC)

I (15)
40

40

II(15)

35

III (15)

35

30

30

25

25

20

20

15

15

10

15

20Days 25

30

35

10

15

20D a y s

25

30

14

35

Physico-chemical analysis of
mature compost

15

NITROGEN CONTENT IN
COMPOST
Nitrogen content in mature composts
3.5
3.0

Nitrogen content(%)

3
2.6

2.5

3.2

2.8
2.7

2.3

2.5 2.3

1.9

2
1.6

1.5

The best result i.e. 3.23% was

obtained in compost with 20%
urine by volume in 3 splits
The lowest Nitrogen content
i.e. 1.57% was found in
compost without urine

1
0.5
0

1 split
2 splits
3 splits

0
10
15
Urine dose with various splits(%)

20

Significant differences were

seen in Nitrogen content
among the treatments

16

PHOSPHORUS CONTENT
4.50
4.27

3.75
P content (% )

Statistically
no
significant
difference of phosphorus content
was found among the treatments
with different splits

3.72

3.00
3.04

2.25
1.50

2.12

0.75

0.00
Mean P content was taken
0%
10%
15%
20%
without considering the splitting of
Urine dose
the dose
Mean Phosphorus content of mature compost
Lowest content of Phosphorus was observed in compost without urine
dose

Highest result was found in 20% urine application, which was

followed by 15% and then by 10% dose of urine
17

POTASSIUM CONTENT IN
COMPOST
Mean Potassium content of mature compost

Mean Potassium content of mature

compost in different dose is showed
in the figure.

2.00
2.22
K content (%)

Statistically no significant difference

of potassium was found in all the
treatments with diff. splits.

2.50

1.50

1.87
1.8

1.00

1.74

0.50

0.00
0

10%
15%
Urine dose (%)

20%

Potassium content was recorded to be 2.2% (highest) in

compost without urine.
18

MOISTURE CONTENT IN
COMPOST
Optimum MC = > 30%
Moisture content of mature compost

40
M .C ( % )

35
30

1 split
32.7
2 splits
3 splits 30.9

25
20

38.4 39.3
37.1 37.8
34.5

28

27.1
16.1

Highly significant difference in

moisture content was found
All the treatment, except
compost without urine
application, attained the standard
moisture content.
1 split in 10% and 15 % were
slight below the standard value

15
10
0

10

15

urine dose w ith splitw ise

20

MC in compost without urine

is far below the standard value
19

VISUAL COMPARISION
Compost with
10% urine

Compost
without urine

Compost with
15% urine

Compost
without urine

Picture 1

Picture 2

Compost with
20% urine
Compost
without urine

Picture 3

20

MATURITY TEST OF COMPOST

Compost with germination
index up to 80% is accepted as
the mature compost
120
100
80

I splits
107.6

II splits
III splits
65.5

102
75.3

74.3

109.2
96.6 94.4 93.6

86.1

60

Urine dosing of 15 and 20%

showed GI above 80%.
Compost with 20% urine with 3
splits showed maximum GI
compare with other treatments.

40
20
0
0

10%

Urine dose

15%

Germination index of mature composts

20%

Compost without urineapplication was recorded to have

only 65.47% of GI, which is
below the maturity standard.
21

Conclusion
z Urine

facilitated the composting process.

z Urine enriched the quality of compost.
due to presence of high Nitrogen and

Phosphorus content
with optimum moisture content
More mature product
z Potassium

dose.

content decreased with urine

22

Conclusion (contd)
z

20% of urine by volume in 3 splits showed the best

result in almost all parameters.

However,20% dosing may varied with

z
z

Nutrient content of urine

Materials used in composting

Considering Nitrogen concentration up to 0.8%, 10

to 20% of urine dosing is recommended.

Hence urine composting can be one of the

appropriate option for improving quality of compost
and managing organic solid waste
23

Acknowledgement
Environment and Public Health
Organization (ENPHO)
&

Water Aid Nepal

24

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