you could boil it down and make gunpowder--charcoal is
easy--the sulfur might be tricky--

Urine can be distilled to produce pure water.

Urine itself may be sterile, but the means of collecting it can be a likely source of contamination. There is a strong likelihood of staph, yeast, and other contact microbes being present if sound hygenic measures are not maintained during the collection.

Having seen the recommendations against the classic solar still due to its relative ineffectiveness, I have always wondered if introducing wet materials into the still would make it worthwhile. If you soaked some rags w/ urine, or chopped up some moist vegetation, would that make the solar still produce enough water to justify using it?

In Steven Callahan's book "Adrift" he describes using 2 inflatable solar stills in which black cloth was soaked w/ seawater to generate the moisture. IIRC these stills were instrumental in his survival.

Solar stills are not the most effective way of collecting water but if it’s your only way it’s so much better than nothing. Adding moisture or plant matter to the still will increase its effectiveness greatly. However you should be careful what you add to the still, because some contaminates will carry over in the evaporation process.

My copy of the US Army Survival Manual (FM 21-76) says not to drink urine as a substitute for water. It has 2 percent salt, and it requires more cellular water to eliminate the salt than there is water contained in the urine.* The manual also says urine contains harmful body wastes.

Additionally, listening to a lot of my acquaintances talk about their urinary tract infections has taught me that "urine is sterile" is probably outdated in these days. I'm uninterested in being around it, as I do consider it a source of disease.

shrug - my theory is, anything anybody wants to do is okay with me as long as I don't suffer as a result. If people think it's okay to drink urine, I won't argue. If they're right and if I don't drink urine, I'll die and they'll live to tell the tale. If I'm right, they'll die and I may live to tell the tale.

*The manual says seawater is 4% salt, and our body requires 2 quarts of the body's fluids to rid itself of the salt in 1 quart of sea water. It says not to use these items as substitutes for water: alcohol, urine, blood, and seawater.

Solar stills are only ineffective if the body moisture required to build one exceeds the amount of water gained, such as in most arid environments. They are useful in conditions where the ground is wet and the air within is evaporative, either because of ambiant heat or direct sunlight. Try one on a sunny mudflat. I guess it would work very well.

While urine is ~95% water, and generally sterile for a little while, I agree that urine is bad to drink. Not only does it create the need to drink more water to offset the salt content, it does contain toxins, such as urea, which is less toxic than ammonia which is formed after it leaves the body; and these are forced to go through the kidneys a second time, only this time at more concentrated levels, which is bad in the long run. Also, urine is not always exactly sterile, as some diseases can be transmitted via urine, such as some forms of hepatitis, and also the bacteria from urinary and kidney infection.
Although, adding urine to a solar still can increase efficiency.
Urine can be reabsorbed within the body and recycled when the body becomes dehydrated. I think that if you have enough water in your body that you can urinate, you are not in immediate danger of dehydration, otherwise it would be recycled within and not expelled. Drinking urine as an emergency measure is ineffective and is nothing more than an absurd psychology. And those who drink it for health reasons are as equally misinformed.

Last summer I made a sucessful Solar Still Here, and though I did not use urine had I done so I am sure the H20 it contained would have evaporated on the plastic just as well as the water contained in the sand.

Also, once you make the still you can use it day after day with little extra effort. I might envision having a half dozen working for you at the same time. Better than nothing if you are not on the move.

There's a fellow named Jenkins, who is the author of the humorous and enlightening "Humanure Handbook," in which he complains about the rampant "fecophobia" that is so heavily entrenched in our culture. Jenkins doesn't mention the problem "uro-phobia," but I'm sure that he would see a definite parallel between these two related concepts.

It turns out the urine may have some important value after all.

http://www.urinetherapeutics.com/index.htm "Introduction to Urine therapy. The first question that probably comes to mind is whether urine is not a toxic substance and how a toxic waste product could ever be of any benefit for your health. Well, urine is not a toxic waste product and this has been scientifically proven. 95% of urine is water, 2.5% consists of urea and the remaining 2.5% is a mixture of minerals, salt, hormones and enzymes. Toxic substances are being removed from the body through the liver and intestines, through the skin and through the outbreath. The main function of the kidneys is to keep the composition of the blood in optimal balance. When there is too much water, the kidneys will remove it. But that doesn't make water into a toxic waste product."

LW.