The December 2021 cover of the journal ACS ES&T Engineering features research being performed by Phil Arve, a doctoral student in EEES, and his adviser, Dr. Sudeep Popat. The title of the article is “Stabilization of Urea for Recovery from Source-Separated Urine Using Electrochemically Synthesized Hydrogen Peroxide” (ACS ES&T Engineering 2021, 1, 12, 1642-1648). The research focuses on stabilizing urea in source-separated urine by producing electrochemically synthesized hydrogen peroxide, enabling the subsequent recovery of urea, or the application of urine directly as fertilizer. From funding provided by NASA-EPSCOR, Dr. Popat and his graduate students are developing novel methods to recover resources from human waste for use in space exploration. As with many NASA-funded projects, the knowledge gained is likely to find applications closer to home.
