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PILOT SCALE WATER REUSE SYSTEM
Impact/Purpose:
Rapid population growth will continue to stress already scarce water resources and contaminate surface water and groundwater supplies. As a result, engineers are evaluating water supply and treatment methods that can augment traditional supplies, including water reuse. Since the majority of the population growth will take place in areas that lack adequate water supply and sanitation systems, this research project will develop and evaluate water supply and treatment technologies that are appropriate for developing communities.
Synopsis:
The research will evaluate small-scale, low-cost, high technology systems for treating greywater and contaminated surface water for agricultural and potable water uses. The project will characterize the source water quality necessary for these treatment processes to be effective. Determining the efficiency of these systems in the lab and examining their sustainability in the field could lead to their use by development or emergency relief organizations and facilities in industrialized countries.
Description:
The efficiency of the treatment technologies is expected to vary with the source water quality. By testing the technologies with various source waters, the research will quantify the limits of the technology: testing the flow rate variations with influent water quality, evaluating the tendencies of the technologies to foul, characterizing the foulants, and exploring appropriate cleaning methods. Understanding the fundamentals of the fouling tendencies will lead to ways to minimize fouling and optimize the treatment processes. Quantifying the technological efficiency of these systems in the laboratory first and then examining their sustainability in the field will lead to their potential use by development and emergency relief organizations as well as facilities in industrialized countries. Implementing appropriate, low-cost, low-energy technologies in developing communities can potentially shift paradigms for sustainable technology implementation in the developed world as well.
Potential to Further Environmental/Human Health Protection:
By 2025, an estimated 1.7 billion people will not have access to enough water to satisfy their basic human needs. This research project seeks to evaluate potential appropriate technology solutions that can address water scarcity and contamination problems worldwide.