Technology Essay: Urine-based Fertilizer for Space Agriculture

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January 1, 2021
Urine-based Fertilizer for Space Agriculture
Our Earth resources may not be enough for all of us in the following decades. Some think that we should build an infrastructure to another planet for us to live. And that could be true shortly. When we think of living on another planet, we first think about how can we get there but the most important is how we can sustain life on that particular planet. Sustaining life on another planet can be solved by planting crops that can be harvested and plant again like carrots, potatoes, cabbage, etc. because bringing seeds rather than livestock is the obvious way to sustain life on another planet for a long period. But as humans, we always think of ways to expand our knowledge and to defy the limits. Thus, I believe that this new technology does not only help future settlements on our planet in building a closed environment in the Antarctic (or on other planets) where food is nowhere to find, but also allow us to grow our crops in a way that is favorable to waste management.
Urine-based Fertilizer
We cannot deny that soon we may need to settle on another planet to save our society. That is why scientists think of the most practical way of how we can get fertilizer and it comes from our urine. Because carrying a ton of fertilizer in space is a waste of valuable storage in a spaceship. Researchers from Tokyo University of Science developed a novel electromagnetic technology to create a liquid fertilizer from urea that is ammonia-based. This method of transforming urine to liquid fertilizer help in growing crops but also in waste management. The thought is to make a space station on Mars that produces safe and sustainable space agriculture that can sustain humans for a very long time CITATION TOK20 \l 1033 (Tokyo University of Science). That is why a study is made by a team of Japanese researchers that is led by Professor Norihiro Suzuki a junior associate from Tokyo University of Science their study made it into the front cover of the respectable New Journal of Chemistry govern by the Royal Society of ChemistryCITATION TOK20 \l 1033 (Tokyo University of Science). In that stated study they strive to solve the food problems in a closed environment much like the space station that NASA is planning to make on Mars CITATION Jor17 \l 1033 (Jordan). This can be considered as a breakthrough in space station settlement in the future.
Drawing to the conclusion that we humans use animal excrement that is rich in nitrogen as fertilizer for numerous amounts of year Dr. Suzuki and the team he leads to investigate the possibility of making liquid fertilizer from urea (also known as carbamide is the main component of urine). Dr. Suzuki explains, “This process is of interest from the perspective of making a useful product, that is ammonia, from a waste product, that is urine, using common equipment at atmospheric pressure and room temperature CITATION TOK20 \l 1033 (Tokyo University of Science).”
The members of that research team also include Kai Takagi, Izumi Serizawa, and Akihiro Okazaki from ORC Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Japan has made an “electrochemical” process to obtain ammonium ions (that is usuall...