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Harnessing fertilizer potential of human urine in a mesocosm system: a novel test case for linking the loop between sanitation and aquaculture

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Abstract

Human urine (HU) is a biogenic fertilizer which has raised immense interest owing to its capacity of combining sanitation and nutrient recovery. In search of an alternative organic fertilizer for fish culture, the nutrient potential of HU was evaluated. Fries of Indian carps and larvae of freshwater prawn were reared for 120 days under six conditions: (a) aerated and (b) non-aerated fresh HU (0.01%), (c) cattle manure (CM; 1.8 kg tank−1), mixed treatment with CM and HU under (d) iso-phosphorus and (e) iso-nitrogenous condition and (f) control. Monitoring of water quality and biological parameters revealed that total fish yield was the highest in CM (621.5 g tank−1) followed by mixed treatments under iso-nitrogenous (428 g tank−1) and iso-phosphorus (333 g tank−1) conditions, aerated HU (321 g tank−1) and HU (319 g tank−1). The gross primary productivity (GPP) in HU was satisfactory (601.8 mg C m−2 h−1) and superior to all but CM treatment. The abundance of heterotrophic bacteria (HB) was highest in CM and lowest in HU. Both GPP and HB population were correlated positively with fish yield per tank. Although pH in all treatments remained high (pH 8.4–8.9), no ammonia toxicity was observed. No E. coli infestation in any fish muscle was encountered. The concentrations of cadmium and lead in fish muscle were within respective safe level. The study established that high fertilizer potential of HU could be exploited as an alternative organic fertilizer or as a candidate to be blended with cattle manure.

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Acknowledgements

The authors duly acknowledge the financial assistance and all sorts of infrastructural support provided by University of Kalyani.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Centre for Ecological Engineering, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, 741235, India

    Sukanta Rana & Jayanta Kumar Biswas

  2. Pollution, Ecotoxicology and Ecotechnology Research Unit, Department of Ecological Studies, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, 741235, India

    Jayanta Kumar Biswas

  3. Laboratory of Soil- and Groundwater-Management, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water- and Waste Management, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Wuppertal, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285, Wuppertal, Germany

    Jörg Rinklebe

  4. Department of Environment and Energy, Sejong University, 98 Gunja-dong, Gwnagjin-gu, Seoul, 143-747, South Korea

    Jörg Rinklebe

  5. Department of Applied Analytical and Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Erik Meers

  6. Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia

    Nanthi Bolan

  7. Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE), ATC Building, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

    Nanthi Bolan

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  1. Sukanta Rana
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Rana, S., Biswas, J.K., Rinklebe, J. et al. Harnessing fertilizer potential of human urine in a mesocosm system: a novel test case for linking the loop between sanitation and aquaculture. Environ Geochem Health 39, 1545–1561 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-017-9942-5

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