Urine collection during the CMT fair
Within the SimBioZe research project at the University of Stuttgart, biomineralized materials are being developed using human urine as a raw material. To scale up the process and produce a larger demonstrator, urine will be collected from campers during the CMT trade fair in Stuttgart in January 2026.
As part of the SimBioZe research project at the University of Stuttgart, we have already succeeded in producing biomineralized samples using human urine. These specimens have demonstrated compressive strengths of more than 60 MPa, indicating that the process is suitable for the production of building components. At the same time, the biomineralization method requires substantial quantities of raw material: around 26,000 liters of urine are needed to produce one cubic meter of biomineralized material.
To date, urine has been collected from voluntary donors at the University of Stuttgart’s wastewater treatment facility operated by the Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management (ISWA). While this approach has enabled the production and testing of small-scale samples, the available volumes are not sufficient for manufacturing larger components.
To address this limitation, a large-scale urine collection campaign is planned during the Caravan, Motor, Touristik (CMT) trade fair in Stuttgart in January 2026. Collecting urine from campers during the event will make it possible to obtain significantly greater quantities of raw material. The collected urine is intended to be used to produce a larger demonstrator in the form of a biomineralized building block, enabling further research at a more application-oriented scale.