Greywater Reuse for Laundry

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I am a research engineer at the Environmental & Water Technology Centre of Innovation and I am looking for ways to reduce water consumption and promote water reuse and recycling. 

Can greywater be recycled and reused for laundry? How should the water be treated beforehand and will the laundry be clean enough? 

In which countries is greywater reuse for laundry promoted and applied?

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20 Answers

  5. I have a greywater system at home and they tend to get a bit of a smell so I wouldn't wash my clothes in it.  Greywater is best used in the garden.  A small rainwater tank is a great way to provide water to flush the toilet and wash your clothes and doesn't require any treatment for these uses. Also rainwater tends to be a lot "softer" than scheme water so you only need a fraction of the washing liquid or powder and the clothes come out softer.

  6. Today there are several solutions that can actually take almost any kind of polluted water all the way to comply with re-use regulations including those of safe to drink water, water will always be water and everything else suspended or dissolved in water can be treated, removed or inactivated according to re-use goal.

    There are very efficient ways to accomplish these goals and most of the times depending on water price in your area you may even find a solution that does not require direct investment and get charged for the service of cleaning back the water for a specific reuse (we do that in MX). So it will definitely take a detailed analysis of treatment and logistics but gray water can DEFINITELY be used for laundry purposes not only as a second use but in infinite cycles replenishing evaporations and moist lost in the process (drying clothes and residual sludge).

  8. Well, first of all you must be aware that few countries promote greywater reuse. That is mainly due to economic reasons linked to water utilities, which want to sell their water. Whether greywater reuse is cost effective is mainly a question of your water tariff and the cost for the treatment, which can be fairly cheap. In cases of water scarcity, availability of water may be more important than cost. Greywater certainly is a very reliable source of water.

    Among the few that do promote greywater reuse Cyprus is quite prominent.

    As for laundry, I don't know any place where it is actively promoted, but do know a few cases in Germany where treated greywater is used for laundry. There may be more cases in practice than I know of. It is certainly no problem to do it. I don't know any in Austria, where I am living, which may be due to water abundance here. Greywater can be treated to very good quality without particular problems.

    A few technologies have proven particularly efficient. One is the use of multi-stage floating fixed bed reactors, with small foam cubes as supports for microorganisms. The retention time is roughly one day. You can operate the system as a sequence of SBR reactors.

    Another possibility is a treatment wetland. Both vertical and horizontal wetlands have been used successfully. Dimensioning will depend on your climate. In Morocco we successfully applied up to 600 mm/d on a vertical bed. In colder climates a nice alternative is to have your wetland indoors, where it is not subjected to the cold outside temperatures in winter.

    RBCs of any shape have also been successfully used for greywater treatment.

    In any case you'll have to provide for a good removal of rough solids (including hair) at the entry and it is advisable to have a UV lamp at the end. Unfortunately membranes have not shown satisfying results with greywater so far.

    Good luck and don't hesitate to come back with more detailed questions if needed.
    Regards, Martin

    PS: to reduce water demand avoiding conventional flushing cisterns is certainly another good means. In public places waterless urinals are easy to install and save a lot of water. In households toilet developments like blue diversion (http://www.bluediversiontoilet.com/) can offer an interesting solution. Research in this direction, which also allows the reuse of nutrients, is highly needed.

  9. It could, but it's not really cost effective.  A more sensible use of laundry greywater is on gardens.  As well as reducing the use of clean water on plants, the phosphates from the detergents are readily used as nutrients by most plants, and residual detergent is effective at wetting hydrophobic soils (many sandy soils become hydrophobic after extended dry spells, particularly those with high organic content, which appears to leave a waxy residue - http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2260793.htm).

  10. Whether it is grey or black water it can be treated with the microbial species called Archaea and all compounds will be reduced into their elemental/nutritional form.  It also will chelate at toxic metals into their non toxic/nutritional form. If you require biomass for rebuilding your soil fertility and increasing your crop yields then filter this out after the odor is completely gone. It will be non pathogenic and non mutational at that time.  Setting parameters and timing is all that is remaining.  Laundry, showers, cooking, drinking, and of course long term storage for unexpected droughts.  

  11. Good day! If You have any problem of sewage treatment - do not panic. The solution has long been developed and applied for water purification. To handle dirty water, we developed a vortex-wave reactor. The name of the reactor due to the simultaneous impact on the processed water by several physical techniques simultaneously. Their combination leads to degradation of mechanical and organic impurities, disinfection in the process of electrolysis, the rapid oxidation due to cavitation. chemical elements ratchasuda on leaving in the process of electrolysis. At the exit from the install You get clear water without smell and taste with mechanical inclusions not more than 20 nanometers. That's very useful for irrigation. Process water can be reused, if vzveshennye destructione precipitate impurities. This can be done in hydrocyclones or filters - sedimentation. If you create a closed water cycle - from water will be removed only from mechanical impurities. This oborudovanie we use more than 6 years in different industries, from wastewater treatment in the production of soybean oil, to sewage masobe, and the production of meat products.  tumentsev@inbox.ru

  12. Добрый день! Если у Вас есть какие-либо проблемы очистки сточных вод - не паникуйте. Решение давно разработано и применяется для очистки воды. Чтобы справиться с грязной водой, мы разработали вихре-волновой реактор. Название реактора за счет одновременного воздействия на обрабатываемый воды на нескольких физических методов одновременно. Их сочетание приводит к деградации механических и органических примесей, обеззараживание в процессе электролиза, быстрое окисление из-за кавитации. химические элементы ratchasuda на выходе в процессе электролиза. На выходе из установки вы получаете чистую воду без запаха и вкуса с механическими включениями не более 20 нанометров. Это очень полезно для орошения. Процесс вода может быть повторно использована, если взвешенные destructione осадок примесей. Это может быть сделано в гидроциклоны и фильтры - седиментаторы. Если создать замкнутый водооборотный цикл - из воды будут удалены только механические примеси. Это оборудование мы используем более 6 лет в различных отраслях промышленности, при очистке сточных вод производства соевого масла, сточных вод masobe и производства мясных продуктов.

  13. There are appears to be some real value in the responses so far...I am not familiar w the regulatory issues but I am quite inclined toward process options.

    Laundry water is "Grey Water," as noted in another response.  Given that grey water does not include sanitary wastewater by the structure of your question I am wondering if you meant sanitary wastewater..."agua negra" or "black water."

     

    In processing either water knowledge of what processing is in-ace is the beginning.  If the black water is tertiary from a municipal facility the treatment requirements are effectively - none.  If these waters are not yet treated...primary concerns, for both waters would include:

    1. Biological treatment

    2. Removal of suspended solids

    3. Destruction of residual organics - synthetic and natural.

    Intense UV would be an excellent starting point - will do some work in reducing biological contaminants and initiate the destabilization of suspended contaminants and soluble organics.  An enhanced media filter (inorganic physical filtering substrate with oleophilic coating) downstream of the UV to grab particulate 8 to 10 microns and above would be a good step.   In fact, repeating those steps - UV again but followed by a polishing filter (2+ micron) would likely get you where you needed to be. Follow those process boxes with chemical oxidant addition.  The second UV exposure can achieve biological control and greatly assist in reduction of soluble organics.

    If this is grey water these process steps would be sufficient - if black water - the biological hazards would warrant serious attention. In-door recycling has been accomplished using ultrafiltration - Membrane Bioreactors.  But always the principle steps are oxidation to eliminate pathogens.

     

    Good sources:  GE Water (now Suez) for MBR based internal recycle and MYCELX RE-GEN and Polisher for the enhanced media and polishing filtration steps.

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  15. Reducing potable water usage in homes, apartments and in fact all buildings is significantly easier and cheaper by using rainwater than trying to treat greywater.  The only economical and effective grey water treatment is for multi dwelling treatment with return to buildings via corporate or municipal distribution pipework etc.

  16. Laundry waste water is Graywater, Laundry wastewater can be reused directly in sub grade outdoor irrigation uses.  Unless! treated, then it is no longer Graywater, it is onsite treated waste water. Treated wastewater is treated to the degree needed for the use/reuse.  In most places in USA there needs to be a treatment system that is NSF 350 compliant to reuse Graywater indoors.  There are specific requirements in different regions.   The IAPMO Green Plumbing Mechanical Code Supplement or GPMCS is a printed code supplement that any regions Authority Having Jursidiction, (AHJ) can use as a guide.  There are products having a listing by a testing lab that can make the legal claim that the product complies to NSF 350.  I will refrain from making a commercial announcement about names.    Suffice to say, over $5000. is a beginning point for price.  

  17. Check out INTEWA. Ecovie distributes in the USA. They have a grey water treatment system. Otherwise you have to use chlotine to treat the water.

  19. Hello your post generates many comments.

    First innovation. This word means absolutely nothing and your presentation on the reuse of greywater demonstrates.

    It is simply an idea in search of a new idea. Wastewater management is morally important, because his problem of treatment is closely linked to the problem of pollution of groundwater reserves.

    A research centre must seek a technicality more effective than those used today.

    The world of today looking for an effective solution of water management, be it water or wastewater.

    Modernization ultra sophisticated and barren of the present societies are based on high consumption of water. See some civilizations waste for the beauty of the place.

    We're going to lack for sure but with innovations we will not worsen pollution.

    Worn, gray, water valve feces, kitchen, is dirty of some pollution of the needs of human life.

    But she is also infused with chemical pollution. All of these impurities are dissolved for a part in the liquid element of wastewater for part imbued in the solid mass.Grey wastewater are, from the point of view - biological - the most dangerous wastewater to the environment. Reusing them for a second use of pollution, this rate will be more important and therefore more offensive against - biology - environment.

    By mixing these grey water, kitchen water then the water we get an effluent in the biology of purification can bring a more than 98% cleaning solution.

    Therefore this purified effluent is entered to the watering of a production of plant biodiversity. Pollution of the detergent will be doubled if we again reuses water from the laundry. Its pollution levels will be high excrement and cons shot a major risk of pollution of the environment. All countries of the world refuses the reuse of laundry to a second use of laundry: it is easy to understand. It is scientific.Go in such a pattern that's been in a situation of crime against humanity.