<p>The microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology is a sustainable device which not only treats the wastewater but also produces bioenergy. The cation exchange membrane (CEM) of the MFC can sometimes contribute to half of the overall cost and to mitigate this challenge, in this study novel cylindrical earthen separator containing vermiculite and montmorillonite (MMT) in red soil was prepared and utilized as CEM in MFC for neat human urine. The human urine contains organic compounds and has high electrical conductivity which can help to reduce potential losses of MFC. The nutrients available in human urine such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) can be recovered as struvite fertilizer. In the present study, phosphorous (1.12&#xa0;g/L) as struvite was recovered as precipitates by adding external magnesium (Mg) source at pH ~ 9 which reduced the phosphorous concentration of human urine by 98.9%. The remaining human urine after struvite recovery was utilized as an anolyte in the MFC for nutrient (N and K) and bioenergy recovery. The performance of the MFC was analysed in terms of open circuit potential, power density, COD reduction, and ammonium recovery in the catholyte. The migration of ammonium ions generated via urea hydrolysis through cylindrical earthen separator was enhanced by using sodium sulphate (Na₂SO₄) as a catholyte. It was observed that potassium ions also migrated through the cylindrical earthen separator and accounted (96&#xa0;mg/L) in the recovered nutrient rich catholyte. The system was able to achieve 12.82 mW/m² power density and 71.86% COD reduction. This study shows the potential to utilize a low-cost cylindrical earthen separator as a CEM in the MFC system to treat human urine along with recovery of P as struvite and a nutrient rich catholyte.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>