Is it true that pee is recycled into drinking water?

Answer 1

Would it make you squeamish to drink recycled rat pee? It shouldn’t because NASA's high-tech water recovery system (WRS) will recycle this waste water—everything from humidity taken through respiration, perspiration, and microwave use to used water of hand washing, showering, toothbrushing, and even urine—to make drinkable water.

Plus, it will save NASA millions of dollars each year. NASA scientists estimate that the recycled water is thousands of times better than the water taken from water treatment plants on the Earth.

Currently, each ISS crew member uses about 4.4 liters (1.2 gallon) each day for various needs. Even with a limited Russian water processor now in use, it still costs about $24 million to transport water up to the ISS each year. NASA estimates that one liter of water costs about $11,000.

Hoping to transport the WRS machine to the ISS via Shuttle Discovery in October 2008, the machine will recycle about 93% of all water used on the station. About 85% of expelled urine will be reused.

The process entails using a chemical dispenser to add sulfuric acid and chromium trioxide to the waste water. The mixture is then spun with a distillation cylinder to separate the urine from the water. It is then heated so the water evaporates, leaving the urine behind in a urine tank. A compressor pressurizes the water vapor so it condenses onto the outer surface of the cylinder, called a brine tank. The brine water is re-circulated through the distiller (distillation cylinder) until almost all of the water is recovered.

The brine is then combined with other waste water (like from brushing teeth and shaving) where it is scrubbed in a water processor assembly. A particle filter traps larger impurities while multiple filtration beds remove dissolved contaminants. Activated carbon takes out organic compounds and an ion-exchange resin removes inorganic compounds. The remaining water then flows into a catalytic reactor that heats the water to around 130 degrees Celsius (265 degrees Fahrenheit) (to remove bacteria) and injects oxygen gas (to oxidize alcohol and ethanol into carbon dioxide). The carbon dioxide and other impurities are removed by ion-exchange beds. The water is monitored so that only the water that is ready to drink is stored in a clean water tank.

Answer 2

Yes, it is true, although it is not as simple a process as it sounds.

Water in a lake contains whatever flows into it from the rivers and streams that feed into it. They collect whatever falls or flows into them from farms, roads, forests and everything else.

For that reason it is called "raw" water, so it must be treated in a series of steps before it can be returned to you in a form that you may call "tap water".

ALL the tap water you get from the city or town where you live has been put through a purification process that involves several steps. The process delivers a clean product that is safe for drinking and cooking. Tests are regularly done to ensure a constant high quality.

You can read about it here:

http://www.lenntech.com/Water-Purification-FAQ.htm

Answer 3

Actually, the answer is no. Drinking water comes from either rivers or dams or some such area of free flowing water. The water is taken in, run through filters and then pumped out through the pipes to you. There are lots of standards that the water has to pass, so reusing waste waters would never make it through the inspection process. With that said, there are some areas that waste water is reused, for example, in Vegas I forget the casino that has the huge water show, and they use "treated" waste water for that, and yes, it is cleaned up quite a bit.

Answer 4

Not as directly as some people are thinking, no. But seeing as matter is never created or destroyed, the water we have is the same water we've had for hundreds of thousands of years, and thus yes, at some point, due to the water cycle, water sources, and purification processes, you may end up drinking liquid that at one point was part of "pee."

Answer 5

All water is recycled from something. So the chance that your glass of water has some water that was urine at some earlier time is very very very very close to 100%

Answer 6

No. Where did you hear that? Any waste water is processed to make it less yucky. But it is never ever mixed back in with the source of drinking water.

Answer 7

They have a new toilet on the space station that does recycle urine into drinking water.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

Technically yes.

There is no such thing as fresh water on the planet, it has all been around for millions of years and as such has all, other than that locked in ice caps or deep underground, been through the human body countless times

Answer 10

They do this in the spave program but each astronaut then reuses only hisor her waste.