Can you purify urine for drinking

Please contact us at contact globalcitizen. More than 2 billion people around the world don't have access to clean drinking water, but new technology used to purify water for astronauts at the International Space Station ISS could also help those on Earth who need it most, according to CNN. Since it's difficult and expensive to transport water into space, every drop of moisture must be recycled and reused to ensure that astronauts have enough clean water to drink. The aquaporin proteins only allow water to pass through the cell membrane, so they can handle very dirty water.

In space, the proteins are even used to extract clean water from the astronauts' urine. Learn what we are doing at Aquaporin — and how you can contribute too.

The system that NASA currently uses to filter water is heavy, only lasts 90 days, and fails to treat every containment. Using membrane distillation , the scientists were able to remove 95 percent of ammonia from the urine.

The urine is heated in a solar-powered boiler, then passes through a membrane separating water from nutrients such as nitrogen and potassium, which may be used to make fertilizers. The goal of the researchers is to create larger versions of the machines and have the installed in airports and sports facilities. They also want to help communities who have difficulties finding potable water. Care about supporting clean energy adoption? The desert is the one place where water is essential, and if by chance you should find yourself alone in the arid lands of Middle East, your piss will save your life—but I'd probably thank the solar still or my survival skills, not necessarily my urine.

A solar skill provides the best way to collect sources of water other than your urine. It's great for collecting the moisture in a dry streambed or dried-up gorge, in any moist land, at the base of a hill, and of course—urine soaked dirt. To learn more about the function of a solar still, visit DesertUSA. To build a solar still, you don't have to be in survival mode, you can be merely curious. But if you do need to make one, it could be the difference between life or death.

Either way, this is how you do it. Hopefully, you'll have some variation of the materials needed with you. If you're just doing it for fun not that drinking urine is fun per se , you should be able to get everything needed.

If you have nothing, and a stranded in the middle of nowhere, chances are you could scrounge up some of these items God bless litter. You can use just about anything for the container: a canteen cup, styrofoam cup, small bowl, tin can, cut water bottle The plastic should be something without tears or small holes, and could be a thin tarp, thin drop cloth, poncho, garbage bag or even a grocery bag if that's all you can find. As for the rock, it just needs to be the right size.

If you have a shovel, this is the time to use it. If you don't, your hands will suffice. You just need to dig a big enough hole in relation to the size of plastic and the container being used. A hole 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep is great for a 6 by 6 sheet of plastic, but if you have smaller materials, a 3 feet wide by 2 feet deep should work just as well, but if you get any smaller, you may not have much luck. Look for soft soil or sand to dig in. A depression in the land is a great spot, or anywhere rainwater might collect that way you have some backup sources— not just pee.

A place where the sun hits is also needed, hence the "solar" in solar still. At this desperate point in time, drinking your urine—and putting those pollutants back into your system—can cause a build-up of toxic levels. The more you drink, the faster it dehydrates you. The very-simplified science is: too much salt draws water out of your cells through the process of osmosis.

That said, it is possible to drink your urine without ill effects. It is not completely sterile of microorganisms , as many sources incorrectly state. So what if you filter it? Again, sorry to disappoint, the answer is no.