UCT spin-out company shortlisted for Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation

A trailblazing idea that involves turning human urine into high-quality, sustainable fertiliser – a concept that contributes massively to the rapidly evolving field of urine treatment – has been developed into a fully-fledged University of Cape Town (UCT) spin-out company.

And thanks to its ingenuity, the start-up, PeeCycling, has also been shortlisted for an Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation – an incredible feat given the award is widely regarded as the most prestigious award for engineering innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa. The prize was established by the Royal Academy of Engineering and is the biggest prize dedicated to engineering innovation on the continent. It awards commercialisation support to African innovators who develop scalable engineering solutions to local challenges, as well as innovations that demonstrate the importance of engineering in improving both quality of life and economic development.

“Being shortlisted for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation is an incredible honour. It validates that our engineering approach is a scalable solution for the continent’s sanitation and fertiliser needs,” said Professor Dyllon Randall, a professor in water quality engineering in UCT’s Department of Civil Engineering and the Future Water Institute, and the co-founder of PeeCycling.

PeeCycling in brief

Registered in December 2023, Professor Randall said the start-up utilises an innovative system to collect and concentrate urine into fertiliser. During the process, it removes all harmful compounds. Their technology, he explained, is like that of a desalination system (a technology used to convert seawater into drinking water) and produces a nutrient-rich, safe fertiliser that closes the loop on sanitation and agriculture.

The plan with the start-up, Randall said, is to ensure that sanitation becomes water-neutral and resource-positive. Further, seeing this technology deployed globally so that cities no longer rely solely on water-heavy sewers to shift nutrients is the ultimate prize. Long-term, he explained, the plan is to convert buildings into local nutrient refineries “that help feed the planet while protecting precious water resources”.

“Getting to this point has involved systematically de-risking every aspect of the value chain.”

Randall, who has led urine research at UCT since 2017, said it has taken almost a decade of focused research and development to reach this stage – and it’s not been a walk in the park.

“Getting to this point has involved systematically de-risking every aspect of the value chain. We’ve had to address everything from waterless collection and chemical pre-treatment to concentration and scale up,” he said. “It has also required building strategic partnerships to ensure our technical goals translate into real-world impact.”

Energy efficient process

Touching on what makes the start-up unique, Randall highlighted its energy-efficient and scalable process. He said unlike thermal water removal techniques, which use heat to evaporate or vaporise water, separating it from contaminants, salts or impurities – PeeCycling does not rely on a phase change separation technique. And because boiling or freezing the liquid to remove the water is not required, he said they use significantly less energy when compared to other technologies.

“In addition, by utilising reserve osmosis, we tap into a globally established supply network. This technology is mature and the parts and membranes are available worldwide, which gives us immense scalability potential,” Randall said.

“We aren’t building bespoke one-off machines. We are using a proven industrial platform that can be serviced and scaled anywhere in the world.”

At the forefront of the circular economy

For Randall, the start-up is extra special.

“The heart of this project was first developed by my co-founder, Dr Caitlin Courtney, who was also my first PhD student. Seeing the project evolve from those initial doctoral research days into a commercial start-up, recognised on a global stage, is an outstanding validation of the research path we’ve taken at UCT,” he said.

Despite its infancy stages, the business has grown at a steady pace. In February, PeeCycling employed a chief technical officer – their first member of staff and a UCT master’s student, Anna Reid. Reid is responsible for driving the commercial scale-up of turning the urine into high-quality, sustainable fertiliser, which is a good example of the link between research and business. She will ensure that the latest academic insights are directly applied in the engineering operations.

“The work we continue to put into this business and its growth is proof that UCT and the Future Water Institute is at the forefront of the circular sanitation economy. By treating our buildings as nutrient and water recovery hubs, we create a resilient circular economy where nature’s logic is applied to the built environment: nothing is wasted and everything is reused,” Randall said.

Onkabetse Modisakeng is another UCT MSc student working on this project. She was not in Cape Town when the group photograph was taken.