Urine Concentration by Forward Osmosis Process

• Project/Area Number: 15K14054
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Civil and environmental engineering
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Funamizu Naoyuki 北海道大学, 工学研究院, 教授 (10113622)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 伊藤 竜生 北海道大学, 工学研究院, 助教 (70374577)
• Research Collaborator: Mokhtal Guizani 北海道大学, 工学研究院, 助教 ; Nikiema Benedicte C. W. 北海道大学, 工学院
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2016)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥2,730,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥630,000)
• Keywords: サニテーション / 尿の利用 / 尿の濃縮 / 正浸透法 / 資源回収型サニテーション / 栄養塩回収 / 尿 / 濃縮 / 正浸透 / 尿資源利用 / 正浸透膜法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The sanitation problem caused by population concentration in cities is an urgent issue of the world. In this research, we aimed at reducing 'transport cost of urine' which is a big barrier of urine use in rural areas, and investigated about the forward osmosis for urine concentration toilet. The results are as follows: 1) It was confirmed that urine can be concentrated to about 5 times by forward osmosis; 2) In the forward osmosis process, it was found that urine components permeate the osmosis membrane. The components with high membrane permeability are ammonia, inorganic carbon, and the small components are phosphate, sodium, chlorine and organic carbon; 3) By calculating the activity coefficient in consideration of the interaction of each component in solution and estimating the osmotic pressure of the solution by using activity coefficient, it was possible to find a linear relationship between the calculated osmotic pressure difference and the measured membrane permeation flux.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Estimation of water flux and solute movement during the concentration process of hydrolysed urine by forward osmosis (2017)
  • Author(s): B. C.W. Nikiema, R. Ito, Guizani Mokhtar and N. Funamizu
  • Journal Title: Journal of Water and Environment Technology Volume: 印刷中
  • NAID: 130006163794
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Presentation] Hydrolysed urine concentration by forward osmosis: numerical modelling of water flux and nutrient concentration (2016)
  • Author(s): B.C.W. Nikiema, R. Ito, G. Mokhtar, N. Funamizu
  • Organizer: the 13th IWA Specialized Conference on Small Water and Wastewater Systems (SWWS) & the 5th IWA Specialized Conference on Resources-Oriented Sanitation (ROS)
  • Place of Presentation: Athene, Greece
  • Year and Date: 2016-09-14
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Urine concentration by forward osmosis process (2016)
  • Author(s): T.Maeda, B. Nikiema, C. Wind-Yam, G. Mokhtar, R. Ito, N. Funamizu
  • Organizer: the 13th IWA Specialized Conference on Small Water and Wastewater Systems (SWWS) & the 5th IWA Specialized Conference on Resources-Oriented Sanitation (ROS)
  • Place of Presentation: Athene, Greece
  • Year and Date: 2016-09-14
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Prediction of water recovery during urine concentration by Forward Osmosis (2016)
  • Author(s): B.C.W. Nikiema, R. Ito, G. Mokhtar, N. Funamizu,
  • Organizer: 13th IWA Leading Edge Conference on water and wastewater technologies
  • Place of Presentation: Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
  • Year and Date: 2016-06-13
  • Int'l Joint Research