Course 1 Unit 2

Characteristics of urine, faeces and

greywater

Content:
Part A: Characteristics of urine
Part B: Characteristics of faeces
Part C: Characteristics of greywater

Lecturer: Dr. Elisabeth v. Mnch

e.vonmunch@unesco-ihe.org
1
 Separated waste streams are
easier to treat and reuse
urine faeces greywater
Substance (yellow water) (brown water) (shower, rainwater organic waste
washing, etc.)

anaerobic constructed
digestion, composting,
wetlands, wastewater filtration,
Treatment storage drying, biological
anaerobic
ponds, biol. digestion
examples composting treatment, membrane treatment
technology

Reuse irrigation, soil

biogas, water supply,
N-rich groundwater improvement,
soil groundwater
fertiliser recharge, biogas
improvement recharge
toilet flushing

= black water (with small Source: GTZ-ecosan project,

amount of flush water) resource book 2
 Waste streams discussed in this
lecture
1. Urine
2. Faeces
3. Greywater
4. Anal washwater
5. Conventional domestic wastewater
for comparison purposes

3
 Course 1 Unit 2

Nutrients are an important

component of waste streams
Macronutrients:
Nitrogen (N)
A fertiliser which contains these
Phosphorus (P) three nutrients is called a
Potassium (K) complete fertiliser
Sulphur
Calcium
Magnesium
Micronutrients:
Boron, copper, iron, chloride, manganese,
molybdenum and zinc

TN = total nitrogen, e.g. urea-N plus ammonia-N (for urine)

TP = Total phosphorus

4
 Role of measurement parameters for urine,
faeces and greywater

Parameter Purpose of measuring

Dry mass, Solids content, mass to be

moisture content (for faeces)
Total nitrogen (TN), total
phosphorus (TP), potassium
(K), ammonia-N
COD, BOD (chemical /
biological oxygen demand)
VS (volatile solids)
transported
Nutrient content for fertiliser value
(or for pollution potential if
discharged to water course)
Organic matter content
Organic matter content

pH pH around neutral is best for reuse

TDS (total dissolved salts)
Electrical conductivity
Pathogens (e.g. helminth
eggs, E. coli)
The lower the TDS the better for
reuse
Proportional to TDS and correlated
with ammonia-N
Assess public health risk (but needs
specialised lab to measure)

5
Course 1 Unit 2

Part A: Characteristics of urine

Most of the data in this part was taken from Jnsson et al.
(2004)

6
 Fresh urine
This amount excreted in
one go by one adult in
the morning (full
bladder!): 730 mL
pH: 7.7
TN: 19 g/L (this is
unusually high)
Ammonia-N: 22 mg/L
(during last IHE lab
session: ~160 mg/L)

Source: own determinations in

Triqua laboratory

You see here 14 grams of nitrogen!

7
 Human urine quantity facts
Human physiology facts:
The body uses urine as a balancing medium for
liquids and salts
The kidneys filter urine from the blood
At excretion, the urine pH is normally around 6
but can vary between 4.5 8.2
Adults excrete about 0.8 1.5 L of urine
per day (children about half that amount)
depending on time, person and
circumstances:
Excessive sweating results in concentrated
urine
Comsumption of large amounts of liquid dilutes
the urine

8
 Nutrients in human urine

Digested nutrients enter the metabolism

and are excreted mostly with the urine
and the rest in faeces
Urine contains 88% of excreted N, 67%
of excreted P and 73% of excreted K; the
remainder is in the faeces
This ratio of nutrient split between urine
and faeces appears to be more or less the
same worldwide

9
 Urea facts
Of the nitrogen in fresh urine, 75-90% is in the form
of urea; remainder is in the form of ammonium or
creatinine
Urea is (NH2)2CO an organic nitrogen compound
(contributing to CODa content of urine)
Urea is easily converted to ammonium by urease in
the urine piping system or in the sewer
In conventional mixed wastewater, about 78% of the
total nitrogen is therefore in the form of ammonia
already
Urea can be made artificially from ammonia and CO 2
and is a popular fertiliser world-wide
Urea has the highest proportion of N of all liquid
fertilisers: 46.4% N in urea

a
COD = Chemical Oxygen Demand (see slide 18)
10
 Course 1 Unit 2
Urine storage

Fresh One month old

(24 March 06) (24 April 06)

Fresh One month old Three months old

(24 March 06) (24 April 06) (28 June 06)

Note the change in colour, increasing cloudiness,

sediments 11
 Processes during urine storage
There is a risk of losing N in the form Ammonia (gas)
of ammonia with the ventilated air
Sludge forms where urine usually
stands for a while
This sludge largely consists of struvite
and apatite
It is formed because the pH of the
urine increases to 9-9.3 due to the
degradation of urea to ammonium and
at this high pH, precipitation of P, Mg,
Ca and NH4 occurs
Urine is very corrosive (use plastic or
high quality concrete for storage, not
metals)
Sludge/
precipitates

12
 Pathogens in urine

Pathogen types: bacteria, viruses,

parasitic protozoa and helminths
Number of pathogens in urine is very low
One pathogen of concern is Schistosoma
haematobium (causing bilharziasis),
where eggs can be excreted in the urine
In areas where this pathogen is endemic, urine
should not be used near freshwater sources
Hygiene risks associated with diverted
urine are mainly a result of contamination
by faeces

13
 Chemical contaminants in urine

Heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cd):

Urine contains substances that have entered the
metabolism and therefore the levels of heavy metals in
urine are very low
Hormones (endocrine disrupters) and
pharmaceuticals:
A large proportion of the hormones produced by our
bodies and the pharmaceuticals that we consume are
excreted with the urine
Hormones and pharmaceuticals are degraded in
natural environments with a diverse microbial activity
Urine is mixed into the active topsoil and retained for
months (see Course 3 Reuse of ecosan products in
agriculture)
It is far better to recycle urine to arable land than to
flush the hormones and pharmaceuticals into recipient
waters

14
 Pharmaceutical residues in urine
(continued from previous slide)
You are more likely to find pharmaceutical
residues in groundwater (e.g. in Berlin!)
than in food crops fertilised with ecosan
products
The load of pharmaceutical residues from
animal manure which is freely spread on
land has never concerned anyone
Some research is ongoing in Europe on this aspect, but it
is not an important research question for me; I think it is
rather driven by some unfounded fears of human urine
and some scientists who like to spend money on
expensive analytical chemistry instruments (??)

15
 Course 1 Unit 2

Nutrient excretion by humans is directly linked

to diet
N
Excreta
Diet
N
P

Diet is the main factor for amount of nutrients

excreted
Relationship to calculate the amount of nutrients
excreted (in total) from the food intake:
N = 0.13 x total food protein
P = 0.011 x (total food protein + vegetal food protein)
FAO statistics are available for food supply for
different countries (see www.fao.org)
16
Estimated excretion of nutrients per capita
in different countries based on diet
(using data and correlation mentioned on previous slide)

Source: Jnsson et al. (2004), page 6 17

 Table 1: Excreted mass of nutrients in urine
per year (typical values for Sweden)
Wet mass kg/cap/yr 550

Volume L/cap/yr 550 Values are

country-
Dry mass kg/cap/yr 21 specific or
Total nitrogen (TN) kg/cap/yr 4
diet-specific
(treat as
Total phosphorus (TP) kg/cap/yr 0.37 guideline
only!)
Potassium (K) kg/cap/yr 1

COD kg/cap/yr 3.6

cap = capita = person
BOD kg/cap/yr 1.8

Useful for calculating crop demand or area required

for application.
Source: Jnsson et al. (2004), and Otterpohl (2003) for COD data; BOD
assumed to be half of COD
COD and BOD are measures of organic content; see lecture on
Fundamentals of conventional biological wastewater treatment 18
 Table 2: Urine data - same data as in
Table 1 but per day

Wet mass g/cap/d 1507

Volume L/cap/d 1.5

Dry mass g/cap/d 57.5

Total nitrogen (TN) g/cap/d 11.0

Total phosphorus (TP) g/cap/d 1.0

Potassium (K) g/cap/d 2.7

COD g/cap/d 9.9

19
 Table 3: Urine data - same data as in Table 1
but given as concentrations
Dry mass mg/L 38200
Concentrations
are useful when
Total nitrogen (TN) mg/L 7300 working with
urine of unknown
Total phosphorus (TP) mg/L 670 number of people
Potassium (K) mg/L 1800

COD mg/L 6500

BOD mg/L 3250

pH - 6 (4.5 8.2)

Own determinations:

COD mg/L 5,200 10,300 Results from lab

session on 20 Sept
VS (volatile solids) content % 16-32 06 with 18 MSc
students
Electrical conductivity (EC) S/cm 10,600 25,100
Urine is very salty
7,800 18,000
TDS (total dissolved solids) mg/L
20
 Some additional information on TDS
and EC
For conventional wastewater, the following
relationship holds (Metcalf and Eddy, page 56)
TDS (mg/L) ~= EC ( S/cm) x (0.55 0.70) or
EC ( S/cm) ~= 1.6 x TDS (mg/L)
Urine is not to be used as irrigation water, but as a
fertiliser
Nevertheless, the classification of water in regards to
saltiness is shown below for comparison purposes:

Name of water TDS (mg/L)

Non-saline < 500

Slightly saline > 500 1,500

Moderately saline > 1,500 7,000

Highly saline > 7,000 15,000

Very highly saline > 15,000 35,000

Seawater > 35,000

21
Course 1 Unit 2

Part B: Characteristics of faeces

Most of the data in this part was taken from Jnsson et al.
(2004)

22
 Course 1 Unit 2

Faeces quantity and content

Faeces consist mainly of non-matabolised
material combined with some matabolised
material
Undigested nutrients are excreted with the faeces
The lower the digestibility of the diet, the higher
the mass of faeces excreted per day (e.g. Sweden
51 kg/cap/yr (wet mass), China 115 kg/cap/yr,
Kenya 190 kg/cap/yr)
Extremely high number of many different
pathogens
Heavy metal content in faeces is higher than in
urine (heavy metals pass through the intestine
unaffected)
Concentrations of contaminating substance in
faeces are usually lower than in chemical
ferilisers (e.g. cadmium) and farmyard manure

23
 What does it look like when faeces
dry out?

(Children have no
problem with faeces)

24
 Air drying of faeces
Fresh faeces 2 days old
(14 May 06) (16 May 06)

6 weeks old
(28 June 06)
2 weeks old
(1 June 06)

25
 Trial # 1
Faeces of a 2.5 year old girl

After two weeks of drying:

appears totally dry, Dead flies: container was covered but
holes in lid, flies could not get out (??)
26
 Data of own faeces drying trials

Start End

Trial # 1 (drying time 14 days)

Weight (g) 60 15

Water lost (g) 45 g

Moisture (calculated) (%) 75
Dimensions (cm) 4 x 6 x 2.5 3 x 4.5 x 2
Volume (mL) 60 27
Density (kg/L) 1.17 0.55

Trial # 2 (drying time 12 days)

Weight 70 20
Moisture (calculated) (%) 71

27
 Course 1 Unit 2

Table 4: Excreted mass of nutrients in

faeces per year (typical values for Sweden)

Wet mass kg/cap/yr 51 Values are

country-specific
Volume (at excretion or diet-specific
L/cap/yr 51 (treat as
i.e. before drying)
guideline only!)
Dry mass kg/cap/yr 11
= weight of a
Total nitrogen kg/cap/yr 0.55 medium-weight
backpack
Total phosphorus kg/cap/yr 0.18

Potassium kg/cap/yr 0.4

COD kg/cap/yr 14

BOD kg/cap/yr 7

Useful for calculating crop demand or area required for

application
Source: Jnsson et al. (2004), and Otterpohl (2003) for COD
BOD assumed to be half of COD 28
 Table 5: Faeces data - same data as
in Table 4 but per day
this is the mass of
Wet mass g/cap/d 140 wet faecal matter
excreted per person
per day
Volume (at excretion) L/cap/d 0.1
this is the mass of
faeces after drying,
Dry mass g/cap/d 30 per person per day
(= a letter
Total nitrogen g/cap/d 1.5 containing 6 DIN-
A4 pages)

Total phosphorus g/cap/d 0.5 For comparison:

solid waste
production is 200
Potassium g/cap/d 1.1 500 g/cap/d in
cities in India
(Source:
COD g/cap/d 39 Rothenberger et al.,
2006, page 93)

29
 Table 6: Faeces data - same data as in Table 4 but
given as concentrations in g/kg wet mass

Dry mass
g/kg 216
(at excretion)
Total nitrogen (TN) g/kg 11
Total phosphorus
Useful when
g/kg 4 working with
(TP)
faeces of
Potassium g/kg 8 unknown
Moisture content % 78 number of
people
Dry matter content
% 22
(at excretion)
79
pH -
(?)

How to measure the organic content (COD and BOD were

developed for liquids)? Volatile solids content or ignition loss;
TOC
How to measure pH? Dilution with water + shaking, or pH meter
for soil 30
Course 1 Unit 2

Part C: Characteristics of greywater

31
 Greywater - definition
Greywater is domestic
wastewater with no or
minimal human excrements
Sources are kitchens, baths,
showers, laundry, washing
Some faecal matter enters if
nappies are washed in the
laundry for example

(households where people use

pit latrines generate
greywater automatically)

32
 Greywater quantities generated
Range: 60 275 L/cap/d (depending on
country and wealth/attitude of user)
Some new houses in Germany, Norway,
Sweden: less than 100 L/cap/d
Rural Jordan example: 20 L/cap/d (water is
precious, so is used several times)
Note: Basic lifeline water requirement: 25 or
50 L/cap/d (Gleick, 1998)
For comparison: Drinking water requirement:
3-5 L/cap/d

33
 Greywater characteristics: organic
matter, nutrients, pollutants
Organic matter (BOD): High concentrations of
easily degradable organic material, e.g. fat, oil
and other organic substances from cooking,
residues from soap, shampoos and tensides from
detergents
Nutrients:
Nitrogen levels low
Phosphorus input from washing and dish-washing
powder (for water softening) some countries, e.g.
Norway, have banned washing powder containing P
Metals and other toxic pollutants: Metals
originating from water itself, corrosion of pipe
system, dust, cutlery, dyes, shampoos (similar to
conventional wastewater)

Source: Ridderstolpe (2004) 34

 Greywater characteristics: pathogens

Proportion of pathogens is low (some

faecal contamination possible)
Greywater has lower pathogen content than
effluent from most advanced wastewater
treatment plants
Amount of faeces in greywater:
Based on measured faecal sterols, the estimate
is that about 0.04 g/cap/d of faeces is mixed
into the greywater
Note: use of indicator bacteria might be
misleading to measure the amount of faeces in
greywater because of growth on organic
matter that is contained in greywater

Source: Ridderstolpe (2004) 35

 Course 1 Unit 2

Table 7: Greywater characteristics

60 - Only to provide an
Volume L/cap/d idea highly
275
variable and
Total suspended dependent on
mg/L 365 water use
solids (TSS)
patterns
Total nitrogen
mg/L 6
(TN) Concentrations
are based on
Total phosphorus Otterpohl (2003)
mg/L 3
(TP) mass flows, and
flowrate of 60
Potassium mg/L 15
L/cap/d
COD mg/L 562

BOD mg/L 281

pH - 7-8

36
 Anal cleansing materials used world-
wide
Toilet paper: collect in faeces compartment if
material to be composted or incinerated,
otherwise store separately
Water (see next slide)
Vegetable materials: collect in faeces
compartment
Stones or rags: collect separately
Newspaper, card board: treat same as toilet paper

Note: absence of anal cleansing material next to the

toilet can lead to higher incidence of diarrhoea
(Herbst, 2006)

37
 Anal washwater

Origin: Practise of many cultures (e.g.

Muslims and Buddhists) to wash anal
area after defecating and after urinating
= Water with a low level of faecal matter
Treatment methods for anal washwater
similar to those for greywater, e.g.
constructed wetlands, soil infiltration
Poorly characterised (few studies)
Should not be mixed with urine; can be
mixed with greywater

38
 Table 8: Summary table of mass of
nutrients in urine, faeces and greywater
% in Grey-
Parameter Unit Urine Faeces Total uri wa
ne ter
Wet mass kg/cap/yr 550 51 601 92% 21900
Volume (before
L/cap/yr 550 51 601 92% 21900
drying)
Dry mass kg/cap/yr 21 11 32 66% 8

Total nitrogen kg/cap/yr 4 0.55 4.55 88% 0.14

Total phosphorus kg/cap/yr 0.37 0.18 0.55 67% 0.08

Potassium kg/cap/yr 1 0.4 1.4 71% 0.32

COD kg/cap/yr 3.6 14 17.7 20% 12

BOD kg/cap/yr 1.8 7 8.85 20% 6.2

For greywater used 60 L/cap/d (quite low consumption)

Source: Jnsson et al. (2004), and Otterpohl (2003) for greywater
data and COD. BOD assumed to be half of COD 39
 Course 1 Unit 2

Volume of greywater, urine and faeces

greywater
24,000 100,000 L/cap/yr urine faeces

Can be a good source of

irrigation water if managed
safely
L/cap/year

500 L/cap/yr 50 L/cap/yr

Note large variation in volume (related to country and

standard of living) 66 to 274 L/cap/d

Source: Otterpohl (2003) 40

 Mass of nutrients

greywater urine faeces

6 This is a complete
fertiliser K
(= containing N, P, K)
kg/cap/year

Source: Otterpohl (2003)

41
 Mass of organic matter (COD)

greywater urine faeces

20 Highly beneficial
when applied to
soil as soil
conditioner (see
kg/cap/year

Course 3 Unit 1
Reuse of ecosan
products in
agriculture)

Source: Otterpohl (2003)

42
 For comparison: conventional
domestic wastewater
Wastewater from households connected
to a sewer system, without any
separation of waste streams
Polluted water with high levels of
pathogens
Large volumes that need treatment
Industrial effluent (untreated or pre-
treated) is mostly mixed together with
domestic wastewater

43
 Course 1 Unit 2

Table 9: Overview of characteristics

of waste streams
Parameter Urine Faeces Grey- Convent. Organic
(concentrati water domestic solid
ons) ww waste
TSS L N/A M M N/A
Nitrogen M L M M
H
Phosphorus L M M L
M
Organic
matter
L H M H H

(COD, BOD)
Pathogens L H L H L

Heavy L L M M L
metals

L Low Toxic substances: heavy metals,

M Medium pesticides, chlorinated organic
H High compounds etc.
N/A Not applicable
44
 Table 10: Comparison with
conventional domestic wastewater

Parameter Urine Faeces Greywater Convent.

domestic wwa
Volume, 550 51 24,000 95,000
L/cap/year 100,000
Nitrogen, 4.0 0.55 0.14 5.8
kgN/cap/year
Phosphorus, 0.37 0.18 0.08 0.5
kgP/cap/year
Organic matter, 3.6 14 12 55
kgCOD/cap/year

a
For US conditions: 260 L/cap/d, 16 gN/cap/d, 1.5 g P/cap/d,
68 gBOD/cap/d, 150 gCOD/cap/d

Source: Otterpohl (2003)

cap = capita = person (for faeces, urine and
greywater data) 45
 References
Gleick, P. H. (1998) The human right to water, Water Policy 1, p. 487-503
Herbst, S. (2006) Water, sanitation, hygiene and diarrheal diseases in the Aral Sea
area (Khorezm, Uzbekistan). PhD thesis, University of Bonn (available:
sherbst@ukb.uni-bonn.de)
Jnsson, H, Richert Stinzing, A., Vinneras, B., Salomon, E. (2004) Guidelines on the
Use of Urine and Faeces in Crop Production, Stockholm Environment Institute (get
from www.ecosanres.org)
Otterpohl, R. (2003) New technological development in ecological sanitation.
Proceedings of 2nd international symposium on ecological sanitation, April 2003,
Lbeck, Germany, p. 455 (in IHE library)
Ridderstolpe, P. (2004) Introduction to greywater management, Stockholm
Environment Institute, Sweden (get from www.ecosanres.org)
Rothenberger, S., Zurbrgg, C., Enayetullah, I., and Maqsood Sinha, A. H. M.
(2006) Decentralised composting for cities of low- and middle-income countries - A
users' manual, Eawag/Sandec (Switzerland) and Waste Concern (Bangladesh),
Dbendorf, Switzerland. Available: www.sandec.ch.
Tchobanoglous, G., Burton, F.L., Stensel, H.D. (2003) Wastewater Engineering,
Treatment and Reuse, Metcalf & Eddy, Inc., McGraw-Hill, 4th edition. Good book on
conventional wastewater treatment

46