
'Liquid gold': students make world's first brick out of human urine - pseudolus
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/25/liquid-gold-students-make-worlds-first-brick-out-of-human-urine
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xspade
Now instead of just shitting bricks, you can piss bricks.

Seriously though, I wish the article had more information about material
strength, time and cost. Eco-centric tech like this is great in my opinion,
but is it something that's actually practical?

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14
In the article they referenced if you want a brick stronger then a 40%
limestone brick you just have to let these bricks grow a little longer. So
they can be at least as strong as a limestone brick if that is any sort of
reference.

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viggity
Limestone is a 3 on the Mohs scale (1 = talc, 10 = diamond).

A kiln fired brick is a 5 to 7 depending on its constituent parts.

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wulfmann
What is a beet's strength on the mose scale?

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ortusdux
The byproduct of this reaction is a unit ammonia for each unit of urea used.
Is large amounts of ammonia easier to dispose of than urea?

"When urea is hydrolysed by the urease enzyme from the microorganism, ammonia
is released and becomes accumulated in the medium which then increases the pH,
making it alkaline (Zoheir et al 2013)

(PDF) Integrating Biotechnology into Geotechnical Engineering: A Laboratory
Exercise. Available from:
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326113096_Integrati...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326113096_Integrating_Biotechnology_into_Geotechnical_Engineering_A_Laboratory_Exercise)
[accessed Oct 25 2018]."

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apo
The decomposition of urea [(NH2)2CO] produces _two_ equivalents of ammonia for
each equivalent of urea. It's not clear from the article how much (if any) of
the ammonia gets consumed by the bacteria.

> Is large amounts of ammonia easier to dispose of than urea?

Ammonia's boiling point is -33 C, so pure urea is a gas a room temperature.

When dissolved in water, ammonia is in equilibrium with ammonium hydroxide. So
the stuff can stick around until consumed by microorganism or it evaporates.

Both urea and ammonia can be used as fertilizers.

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JohnJamesRambo
Pure urea is not a gas at room temperature.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea)

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apo
Typo, that should be "ammonia."

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jugg1es
Gives new meaning to the phrase Kidney Stones.

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tyingq
_" world’s first brick made from human urine"_ seems a bit strong.

Maybe there are even earlier ones, but this is from 2010:
[https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/architect-
grow...](https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/architect-grows-brick-
from-bacteria-sand-urine.html)

Edit: Ahh, I guess the nuance is that the first effort used extracted urea
versus actually using urine.

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dumbfoundded
Yeah, I thought that was a bit humorous. It seems like the original
experiments didn't want to do a field test.

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rapnie
Using liquid gold as a resource to extract valuable phosphates is a long-time
practice. For instance in 2013 the Amsterdam sewage treatment plant started a
large-scale installation to process urine.

Here are some ins and outs on the hows and whys:

[https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/p-phosphate-could-
urin...](https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/p-phosphate-could-urine-solve-
fertilizer-shortage)

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bediger4000
Could they embed urine powered batteries ([https://newatlas.com/urine-
battery/42866/](https://newatlas.com/urine-battery/42866/), and many others)
in the urine brick? These could bricks be part of a "smart" home/building,
where every brick reports in as to its current condition, strength and mood!

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module0000
Time-lapsed video of what this looks like once it's in the mold would be
interesting. Some more technical specs about the time involved and volume of
materials would be interesting as well. Maybe there will be a follow up
article?

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DonHopkins
Myth Busters proved you can polish a turd, but how about a brick of piss?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ9fy1qSFI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ9fy1qSFI)

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johnhenry
I just hope the president sees this. He could realize his greatest dream --
the wall, by using his favorite material.

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fit2rule
Good for Mars colonisation, perhaps? Piss your way to a new Villa! ;)

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stevejboyer
And now we know how we'll build our buildings on Mars.

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excalibur
It seems like it would take a very long time for a small number of residents
to produce enough bricks to build anything via this method. Then again, it
could still be more practical than utilizing local materials, particularly in
the very early stages of colonization.

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noworld
Youtube: World's sharpest urine knife.

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edsonmedina
Imagine the smell of that :)

