By obsession you mean an efficiently run compost pile? Yeah, we can be like that.
So you agree that a balance needs to be achieved between the brown (C), and the green (N) components of the pile; say a C/N ratio somewhere between 20 and 30.
Any citations on short chain fatty acids combining with ammonia in compost piles? In sheep rumens and colons, yeah, but compost piles? Citation please.
If the NH3 is floating away, how do you bring these reactants together, a hermetically sealed reaction chamber? Ammonia is converted in the atmosphere into N2O, a very strong greenhouse gas. As good stewards of the land, we should reduce our production of ammonia (better control of compost pile).
I just pile stuff up and pull out what I can. Once in a while I'll run into a cigarette pack or plastic toy from the 1950s. Back in the pile it goes. You can never tell when the right bacteria might show up.
Turn the pile over, add water? You've got to be kidding. One of the nice things is that you can just let it lie there.
Previously, the equation train went from urea [(NH2)2CO] to ammonium carbonate [(NH4)2 CO3] to ammonium [2 NH4] and carbon dioxide [CO2 gas)] & then I stopped at ammonia [NH3 gas] and water [H2O].
But I guess (from what you said above) some of that atmospheric ammonia is converted to nitrous oxide (probably by oxidation of the ammonia?): 2 NH3 + 2 O2 ? N2O + 3 H2O
I have to ask why ? As an academic exercise? Not much reason to save it. Urine is pretty cheap and fairly renewable for most of us. In a compost pile I would let it go do it's job unhindered. Unless you test/ analyze your homebrew, hot or cold, your only guessing as to its nutrient content. So the urine is just feedstock and not a nutrient at this stage.
As for using urine in your soil, you and others gave some good info as to how best to use. I did read excerpts from one of the Finnish team's three experiments wherein =93Surendra K. Pradhan, K. Holopainen and Helvi Heinonen-Tanski of the University of Kuopio in Finland collected human urine during the winter of 2007-2008 from several eco- toilets in private homes. The urine was stored for about six months at
45 degrees F and tested for microbes and bacteria. The team mixed it with wood ash collected from a household furnace, and found the mixture was just as good as -- or better than -- conventional chemical fertilizer.=94 So I would assume urine was relatively shelf stable for at least that amount of time/temp. Here is a lead on her email if you want to ask first hand: snipped-for-privacy@uku.fi .
WA State's land grant site on Composting :
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Another link that maybe helpful w/ your quest:
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I do have to say that while the average person's urine maybe safe there is increasing concern about Environmental Pharmaceutical Persistent Pollutant (EPPP) which do show up in edible plant, albeit in low doses. Always test or know your source well!
That being the case, I would apply the urea to the garden or pots and then water it in. If you don't till your soil the mycorrhiza will spread the the nutrients, including the nitrogen, around in the garden, and the life and death cycles of the microbes you encourage will feed the plants.
This slideshow PDF shows that both urine & faeces supplies a LOT of nitrogen, e.g., 5 grams per liter for urine & 40 grams per kilogram for faeces (although I'm only using urine).
Title: Experiences and opportunities for human excreta fertilizers in improving small scale agriculture
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It was interesting to see in that slide presentation a 'drip irrigation system' for 3rd-world countries coming right out of what appears to be an outhouse!
Here, for the record, is a picture of my ad hoc 'compost' bucket ... where I put all kitchen food-related trash (eggshells, banana peels, lettuce cores, chicken bones, fat cuttings, orange peels, stale bread, etc.):
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Notice the patented NPK 12:1:2 fertilizing formula I've been using, thanks to all your advice!
So far I've been emptying this about once a week into a large wheeled green compost bucket (which is half full and getting unwieldy).
The bottle of urine you see there is about a day's output from yours truly:
That's about ~1.5 liter / day / person
Which is about 7.5 grams of Nitrogen per day
And about 6 pounds of Nitrogen, 1 pound Phosphorous, & 2 pounds of Potassium per year
I wonder what a comparison cost would be for equivalent store bought NPK
12:1:2 fertilizer containing 6 pounds of nitrogen?
But, I'm at least learning yuck that I never knew before ... for example, on Saturdays I deliver double my normal urine output - and - the color tends to fade to a lighter amber (as shown in this picture taken today of the second bottle of the day):
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And, the practical (yuck) experience doesn't stop there.
For example, I found that this width bottle is too small for a normal person to fit and therefore there's the need for a wider bottle opening (two inches would seem to be a good bottle opening size for a 2 liter bottle):
Andy comments: Use laundry detergent plastic jugs. Wide mouth, easy to fit with no= fiddling around ..... I keep one under the bed to keep from stumping my toes at night, and one in the truck so I don't have to stop and go into a gas station after every beer....... They are empltied into a raised bed garden, in those spaces where I've already picked the produce.....
I have a plastic urinal I got during my last hospital visit where I had to keep track of urine output. I keep track of output every now and then especially after I peed out 50lbs of fluid in two weeks last fall. In a month I was 60lbs lighter after getting the right medication. No more fluid in my lungs went a long way toward making me feel better. ^_^
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