Reuse of Treated Water from Domestic Use

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A residential community of 200 families, has the water consumption of around 80,000 litres per day, which is treated and pumped into a stream, which is still of waste.

I would like to understand, if such water can be reused, both with and without much processing?

If so, I would like the experts to clarify in detail how and how the water can be reused?

Thanks

Murthi

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25 Answers

  2. One piece of advice is to check the new NGT STP plant output standards for all urban areas. The standards for putting into a water body have been significantly tightened.

    Depending where you are (urban/rural) and what the existing treatment process is achieving will start you on the way. There are lots of options including low O&M solutions out there. We use them in villages regularly.

  3. If they can manage to separate grey water (waste water from kitchen and bathrooms) and black water (from the toilet) then greywater can be used for flushing in the toilets just after the primary treatments. As in one flush, we normally use 10 litres of water so the use of grey water for this purpose may have a significant impact on water use. Additionally, primary-treated greywater can be used for gardening too.

  4. THE NEW PARADIGM FOR WASTEWATER-PROCESSING / WASTEWATER-RECYCLING

     
     

    These were some of the headlines of articles in recent “ water magazines” :

    • We need alternative water supplies: Not just for droughts anymore
    • Talks intensify as Congress works on an infrastructure bill
    • Water Trends to Watch in 2018
    1. Water plays a leading role in the transformation of commodity exploration
    2. Water reuse provides a key opportunity for a long term supply option
    3. Where’s the money for municipal utilities?
    • RE-USE… RE-USE… RE-USE

    And when you add all of the recent articles about “Smart Cities,” we suggest that it’s time for our industry, our governments and our municipal utilities to see the solutions for those problems and circumstances: a wastewater system that totally eliminates all organic wastewater sludge (the number one contaminant on this planet) and RECYCLES the wastewater effluent to be 100% re-usable and even potable!

    The only system that does that: (a) has recently received its U.S. Patent approval; and (b) has been manufacturing these systems for the U.S. Military: the Global Water Group (Dallas, TX.) “WWR” (Wastewater-and Wastewater Recycling) technology.


     

    Why is this Global WWR System different than any other system?

    First, Global’s WWR System is the only system of its kind on this planet and recently has been recognized by the United States Patent Office with U.S. Patent No.: 9,908,800 . This application was originally filed on April 14, 2011 and the patent was just issued on March 6, 2018; and back in 2011 additional applications had been filed in 143 countries: of which all are still under consideration.

    Second. In the final process of the water purification of the Global system, a second patented totally unique process will soon be included in these WWR systems. This process utilizes Nano-Technology, created in conjunction with the United States Department of Energy, and will make a revolutionary improvement in all water purification for the next century. This nano-process has already received patents in 47 countries, including: the United States, Canada, Mexico, The European Union, Russia, Singapore, Israel, South Africa and more.

    Third. Global has proven its WWR Systems for the U.S. Military (Special Forces) in Base Camps in Iraq and Afghanistan, Navy EOD & Seals, and several oil and gas offshore drilling operations for almost 10 years. Now is the time to make these systems available for municipalities.

    Fourth. In the simplest terms, what makes the Global WWR System so different, so good and so needed is that:

    (1) At the end of the day, all of the organic sludge shall have been eliminated with no organic sludge required to be physically removed or disposed of; and

    (2) 100% of the effluent shall meet the qualities required for re-use: even potability.

    No other system can process wastewater like this.

    Current municipal wastewater processes, in some form or fashion, create organic sludge: the number one contaminant in the world. Every system has one or more anaerobic processes. Sludge is either hauled away, at some additional cost, and dumped or disposed of creating some potential environmental problem; or sludge is “burned” either for fuel or pure disposal, often with bad environmental results; or sludge is used for fertilizer, which is potentially an environmental hazard waiting to happen.

    There is really no “net” benefit to sludge.

    The Global system’s ‘Digester’ uses an accelerated extended aeration process of “air and enzymes”: enzymes that create environmentally correct bacteria to eat up all of the organics. They dissipate, harmlessly, into the air. From the Digester the clear wastewater flows through a Clarifier which is sized to ensure that suspended solids settle and separate from the liquid where almost all suspended solids are continuously drawn up by a vacuum process and discharged back into the Digester. The principle in the Clarifier is to never create more sludge and never let suspended solids escape the Digester process.

    The effluent from the Clarifier goes into a Global Recycling Process which captures all suspended solids to about 10-microns and send those solids back to the Digester process.

    From the Recycling Process, the effluent flows into Global’s Water Purification process. According to the World Health Organization, as a simple analysis to truly purify water today, it takes three components:

    1. Filtration below 1-Micron for removal of parasites; 
    2. Absorption/adsorption for removal of hazardous chemicals (heavy metals, insecticides, pesticides, radon, etc.); and
    3. A process ( Ultra-violet , ozone, chlorine, etc.) for killing bacteria and viruses.

    Each of these three components is a separate process and almost no municipal system actually does all three processes. Therefore, few of us get “purified” drinking water from our faucets at home. In many ways our federal and state “water standards” for potable water does not cover all of the requirements as stated by the WHO. So our municipal water utilities report, most often, that they meet the (less stringent) government standards.

    For 28 years, Global Water Group has been manufacturing systems: from back-packs to base camps, for the U.S. Military that follow the multi-faceted principals recommended by the World Health Organization. Every Global system will remove the parasites from water; remove the hazardous chemicals from water; and will kill the bacteria and viruses.

    The effluent from the entire WWR System becomes 100% re-usable water.

    Global Water has been manufacturing water systems, primarily for the U.S. Military, since 1990. During these 28 years it has been a niche business with systems deployed to five continents and over 40 countries. Now Global is ready to provide municipal systems which will be the water solutions for the next century. Global has developed a Public Private Partnership financing concept to fund most new municipal water systems without increasing current water rates and without requiring new municipal bonds. Global’s modular building technology makes systems faster to build and install, easier to operate and easier to maintain.

    The best way to see the scope of these systems and Global’s patents: www.globalwater.com .

    Submitted by:

    Alan M. Weiss, President, Global Water Group

    8601 Sovereign Row, Dallas, TX 75254

    214-678-9866

  5. Dear Murthi,

    Kindly share wastewater analysis report. based on analysis report, we can share the cost economics of suitable technology. 

    thanks

    Vimalesh Patel

  6. The answer is yes, it can be reused, but to what extent you need to let us know.

    It can be purified for irrigation, landscaping, toilet flushing, boiler make up water and so on...depending on the requirements.

    Our package MBR system is an ideal solution if you intend to reuse the water for landscaping or toilet flushing, etc. The features of our MBR are it uses reinforced membrane and consumes less power to achieve good effluent quality,  compared with other systems.

  7. Can be reused or recycled but it depends on characteristic of treated effluent and the objective of use?

  9. Sir:

    We have 100% fully organic and biodegradable solutions to clean your water inexpensively to "A" Grade Agricultural standards. If you wish we can use additional systems and UV sources to provide potable water.

    These systems have been in use for more than 20 years.  We have engineers reports from large cities and also from very small villages that attest to the success of biologicals in treating water/effluent.

    Send us an email for commencement of dialogue.

    pettman@soleco-technology.com

    Regards,

    Hugh

  11. Categorise and roughly quantify the sources of water considering the levels of contamination. How easy is it to separate toilet waste and any other highly contaminated waters from relatively clean water like shower waste.

    Second consider the uses for that water and the critical quality parameters that must be maintained. Uses include irrigation of crops or non-food plants, toilet flushing, watering animals, etc.

    Then look at how easy and costly it would be to match source against use using the necessary level of treatment which might be nothing, a sand filter or simple disinfection using bleach or other low tech methods.

    Do NOT try to treat all the wastewater as others have suggested unless water scarcity is a major issue. It will be costly and create significant health risks for your community. 

  12. Hello Murthi, wastewater (treated) is indeed a resource and using it for non-potable purposes is definitely the need of today. Also in so doing we will be able to reduce the pressure on our freshwater resources. As for your question, using waste water (sewage and greywater) without treatment has many health implications and is not recommended. It has to be treated before using and only be used for non-potable purposes (including recharging the groundwater resources) which again depends on the level of treatment . While there are many guidelines regarding this I believe the WHO guidelines can be a starting point.  

    1 Comment

  13. Dear Murthi, use of treated wastewater is the demand of current situation existing in India. Wastewater contains a lot of contaminants which are harmful to humans hence essential to be removed before reusing the water.

    If you think to segregate the water used in toilets (sewage) from water used in laundry, showers and wash basins (grey water) it will cost you more. Better to treat them together to get substantial quantity of water for reuse.

    The process is simple and is divided in 3 stages Primary: to remove screens, grit etc. Secondary: Biological process to remove biological contaminants represented by BOD & COD and last stage is filtration with disinfection to remove & kill the pathogenic bacteria which are harmful for humans. In treated effluent it's essential to maintain 0.5 to 1.0 ppm residual chlorine to keep the water free of pathogens. after such treatment sewage can be reused without any limitations.

    In India a number of manufacturers are available who are manufacturing these plants which are compact & cost effective. If you require such details please give me your email so I can share with you these details. 

    1 Comment

  14. Pl. collect the water separately used through Toilets & bath shower. Reuse of water once used as a bath shower may be easy to be processed through a Sand/Carbon Filter or installing an RO Plant.

     

    1 Comment

  16. Depending on the retention time of your discharge/ holding pond, nonedible aquatic plant life with some form of biofilm may be a low cost option to reduce nitrogen. Some type of disinfection is strongly needed using UV or bleach before allowing reuse.   

  20. First, let me know the details of using 200 households per person / water.

    1) Shower, L
    2) Laundry, L
    3) Cleaning, L
    4) Washing, washing, L
    5) Wash dishes.L
    6) Toilet (flush toilet / capacity L)

    Total: 1 day / 80,000 L

    msh56@hanmail.net

    1 Comment

  21. Murtha, yes you can reuse the water for various other applications once treated, the quantity of water you described is promising for reuse, Firstly you should characterize the water quality, secondly determine the needed treatment, and finally compare the quality with your country specification for reuse.

    2 Comments

  22. We have a system that can process all of that water back to drinkable.  For about $50,000 usd.  Perhaps less if we had more specific info.

    1 Comment

  23. Dear Murthi

    There need some clarifications 

    what kind of treatment you are doing presently 

    what are the treated wastewater analysis report says

    after that we can decide the further treatment depending upon the end use. Please comment. 

    1 Comment

  24. could you tell me about the quality of the water?

    what is your financial capacity to treat, do you need low cost technologies?

    For the reuse, do you have a standards for the reuse of wastewater? If not we could propose some categories like forages, cut flowers, industrial crops...

     

    Regards

    1 Comment

    1. Thanks Dr. Luna Al-Hadidi   for the reply.

      As I mentioned, the water is already treated - But does not know the effectiveness of the treatment - Which can be verified by the water quality.

      I am looking for a cost effective treatment.

      I do not know much about the standards.

      Will post the water quality report for further clarification.

       

      Thanks
      Murthi

  25. Murthi , Yes you can reuse the water for various other applications once treated depending on whether you have a water network in place one could use the water for the washing of clothes or for the flushing of toilet depending on the type of sanitation technologies used by the community if you are a rural community you can divert the water to a simple sand fliter and reuse the water for agriculture i would recommend using the water for toilet flushing or washing of clothes. Releasing untreated water into your stream is not good practice  for many reasons 

    1 Comment