Fertiliser made from urine could enable space agriculture: study
Researchers in Japan have electrochemically created ammonia from urine to grow plants in space.
Freeze dried survival food? Cultivated meat? What foods offer the potential to support mankind in its quest to colonize Mars and spread human life beyond Earth? A new study boldly claims that urine holds to the key to ensuring food sufficiency and self-sustenance to enable isolated colonies to survive even in the event of a catastrophic failure in provisioning.
Researchers from Tokyo University of Science aimed to address the problem of food production in closed environments, such as those in a space station. Realising that farmers have used animal waste as fertilizer for thousands of years, as a rich source of nitrogen, they investigated the possibility of manufacturing it from urea (the main component of urine), to make a liquid fertiliser.