According to the credo »Nothing is waste or waste water, everything is a resource«, students and staff of Umweltingenieurwissenschaften (Environmental Engineering) at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar have developed the so-called »P-Bank«. The letter »P« not only stands for the element phosphorus but also for the verb to “pee”. The idea: »With P-Bank we intend to demonstrate that it is relatively easy to transform the phosphorus excreted in urine into a fertiliser«, explains Prof. Jörg Londong at the official opening of the bright yellow prototype on 12 April 2019.
By means of the so-called No-Mix toilet and water-free urinals it is now possible for everyone to donate their urine, generating valuable raw material as a result. »Phosphorus is a finite resource which cannot be substituted by anything else, it is in shorter supply than crude oil«, says Londong. »In the form of waste water and manure, phosphorus is dispersed in the water and ultimately squandered - we want to change this«.
For years Bauhaus-Universität Weimar has been researching ideas for a new way of handling waste water and developing new solution proposals. Researchers intend to use the P-Bank to demonstrate in this Bauhaus centenary year that the University is actively engaging with questions which are highly relevant to society and working on unusual, and in some cases radical, approaches to counter these issues.
The environmental engineers have been supported by designers Anniek Vetter and Silvia Debit, under the leadership of Prof. Sattler, Faculty of Art and Design, as well as the company Werkhaus. The project has been financed by the German Federal Environmental Foundation which has provided funding of €100,000.
Please contact project director Prof. Londong if you have any questions:
Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Londong
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Professorship - Urban Water Management and Sanitation
Coudraystr. 7 Room 215
99421 Weimar
Tel.: +49 (0)3643/58 46 15
Email: joerg.londong[at]uni-weimar.de
This project has been supported by the Bauhaus100-Centenary Fund