
Human excreta contain a lot of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium which are mainly wasted while agriculture mainly relies on nutrients from artificial fertilizers. However, these nutrient sources are limited and have a large impact on the environment. For instance, nitrogen fixation is very energy intensive and phosphorous rock mining results in heavy metal pollution. Human excreta end up in the waste water treatment plant as part of domestic waste water. By source separation, toilet water (black water), bathroom water (grey water) and rainwater are separated. Nutrients end up in the concentrated black water stream, but also a large fraction of pharmaceuticals and pathogen are present in black water. Therefore, thermophilic and hyper-thermophilic anaerobic digestion are proposed to simultaneously recover the nutrients from black water and eliminate pathogens and pharmaceuticals to ensure safety with regards to public health upon reuse of recovered products.