Dear Chen,
in addition to the information you gave us I have a somewhat different question. The separation and use of urine sounds to me as a very progressive and climate friendly way of disposal and nutrient recovery at the same time. Since China is a very (if not most) important country in the world your management strategies have quite a bit impact to our environment. How is the present situation in your country? Are more and more public or private building choosing the way of Urine reuse? And is it more a rural approach or are there architects and urban planner who pick up your ideas? Or are different methods for nutrient recovery practiced in the big cities? Where is the trend going?

Thanks for answer and have a nice day,


Heiner

Hi, Paresh:
We do not dilute the urine with water for the apple trees as it is quite expensive to transport water to the orchard.
And the urine stays in the closed tank for a month at least and there is no harm to the trees after the application.
We have been doing this over 8 years.
But, for vegetables , we must dilute the urine with water.
Charcoal and biochar with urine can improve the efficiency of urine obviously. 
The purpose of my test with bamboo charcoal is to help the farmers  earn money from the bamboo and improve the soil being hurt by chemical fertilizers.
best wishes
chen xiang yang

What biochar and charcoal (two related but different products) do is fix the nitrogen with carbon so nitrogen losses are less and it is converted to a bioavailable form for plants.
You could also do this with sugar, molasses, etc.

Biochar, which is carbon biomass pyrolized in an oxygen-free environment (that is how it differs from charcoal), provides carbon but has its structure in place, which helps create aerobic pockets for the urine to be transformed.

I am guessing that biochar and charcoal also alkalinize the urine but I haven't tested that. I will try that this week.

Dear Scott,
Thanks for posting the video and answering questions. I like your idea of sourcing urine from schools and other institutional settings. Agree that it is easiest and most cost-effective way. 

Yet going through the video and the posts and answers in this thread, I do not completely understand processes involved in using urine in  of agriculture. You mention that the urine needs to be diluted.  Is it true for urine used to soak  biochar/bamboo charcoal? On the contrary, the truck directly empties urine near the apple trees.  

It would be great if you could describe the process according to the steps you follow.

Thanks
paresh

Dear Heike,
You could see the video in Scott's post dated 27th December in this thread to get some idea. 

Regards
paresh

I am a little lost, could anyone explain what these answers refer to? Sounds interesting, but I don't find the initial discussion on this topic.

Thanks
Heike

 Dear Heiner:
Please read my answers to your questions in Italics.
When you use fresh urine, how do you prevent the loss of nitrogen (better ammonia)?
We do not use fresh urine within 15 days. The urine is kept in a closed container undermeath the toilet for preventing the loss of nitrogen.

Do you adjust the PH value?
No,we do not adjust the PH value as we always dilute the urine with 
10-20 times water for vegetables. There is no value to change the PH value.

Or do you accept a little loss?
Yes,we accept a little loss. When we apply the urine to the apple trees, a little ammonia would flee to the air.

Store it in locked container?
Yes, always.

In Germany we right now discuss the introduction of urine separating toilets which will cost quite a bit money. So  ideas of saving as much nitrogen as possible are important. During wintertime it is not allowed to use any nitrogen fertiliser so we have to store it for 5-6 months.
I think it is better to use charcoal to absorb the nutients all the time and return the charcoal to the soil even in the winter. Storing urine for 5-6 months costs too much.
Therefore we look for solutions to save every kilogram of nitrogen. 

Dear Scott  (or Chen Xiang Yang?)

thanks for attached video clip. Now I know who you are because I watched the clip a year ago....

Some more questions as a farmer: When you use fresh urine, how do you prevent the loss of nitrogen (better ammonia)? Do you adjust the PH value? Or do you accept a little loss? Store it in locked container?
In Germany we right now discuss the introduction of urine separating toilets which will cost quite a bit money. So  ideas of saving as much nitrogen as possible are important. During wintertime it is not allowed to use any nitrogen fertiliser so we have to store it for 5-6 months. Therefore we look for solutions to save every kilogram of nitrogen. 

Thanks for sharing and wish you much success further on..

Heiner

Ariel Fisk，
I watched your 2009 YouTube vedio finally. You tested urine+biochar 10 years ago. That Is amazing!

I have brought thousands of tons urine to the apples trees Without biochar. 

Have you ever done a larger scale test?

Best wishes

Chen Xiang Yang

Dear Heiner:
The unprocessed urine does have a positive impact with the urine as I have been growing apples with the urine as the fertilizer for many years as shown in the ARTE documentary ,URINE SUPERPOWERS， 
There are a lot of researches about the biochar for agriculture saying the charcoal is very good for the bacteria to live in.
Now, I have found the best biochar professor in China. He can help us set up the biochar factory. Later , I will find some fertilizer experts to set up a biaochar fertilizer factory. 
best wishes
Scott

Dear Bogdan Popov:

Yes, I tried.
In the 2nd test as shown in the red square of the attach picture, i tried 10 square meters space with the same vegetable, neither urine ,nor urine+charcoal.
But,we grew it one month after the 1st test.

best wishes
Scott

BPopov wrote: Dear Scott! 
Thanks for posting this! Did you make also control planting of the same plants without neither urine nor urine soaked charcoal?

Very cool. I saw your photos on LinkedIn, too.
Here's a video I made in 2009 (with an old video camera, not very good at all!) of Ariel Fisk-Vittori showing his urine-biochar experiment.