This summer the toilet ‘The Place To Pee’ recycles the urine of visitors of the Ghent urban recreation area Blaarmeersen. Thanks to an innovative technology that originates from ESA’s space exploration, the urine is processed into disinfecting flush water and fertilisers for agriculture.
URIDIS is a water treatment technology developed through the MELiSSA POMP programme that provides safe and sustainable toilets. URIDIS has two functions: take valuable components from urine (phosphorous, nitrogen and salt) and pre-treat toilet flushing water to disinfect it. The system allows to:
- Save water: pretreated flush water allows source separation with low flush volumes which results in up to 60% savings in water consumption;
- Improve hygiene: disinfecting flush water eliminates microbial activity and avoids pathogen spread;
- Reduce wastewater load: local removal of nutrients reduces the load of the wastewater on the sewer and treatment plant, and nutrient recovery allows reuse.
Hydrohm is a recent spin-off of Ghent University and Capture. It was established in 2020 to develop electrifying water treatments as an opportunity to shift towards more local and sustainable water systems, with an increased focus on quality and health. As an alternative to treating water using chemicals, using electricity is renewable, traceless, economical and can be done anywhere. This makes it vital for countries most affected by lack of water, which tend to be the developing countries.
The demonstration will be the first deployment of the URIDIS technology, by coupling the system to a public toilet next to the central beach building in the Ghent urban recreation area Blaarmeersen. The demonstration is open from July 6th to late September.
“This demonstration project shows that Ghent has an enormous wealth of innovative companies. The cooperation of educational and knowledge institutions with companies constantly results in new technologies and applications. Through the spearhead fund, we as a City invest up to 40 percent in innovative projects and living labs within our 4 spearhead clusters. This is how we make the difference for the future and strengthen our ambition to become a Technology Capital in Europe.”
Sofie Bracke, City of Ghent
The demonstration project ‘The Place To Pee’ is a collaboration between Hydrohm, Laufen, Ghent University, ESA, MELiSSA, CAPTURE, Spraying Systems Co., Verhaert, TECE, COSMIC, Farys and the City of Ghent. More information about the circular toilet on Gent Info webpage (in Dutch).