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Tag: waste water

San Francisco’s Plans to Recycle Wastewater

Posted on by dishanth
San Francisco’s Plans to Recycle Wastewater

Wastewater is used water that has been affected by domestic, industrial, and commercial use. It includes uses like flushing toilets, doing laundry, washing dishes, and basically anything else that puts used water into a drain. While high-income countries treat about 70% of the wastewater they generate on average, only 38% and 28% of wastewater are treated in upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income countries, respectively.

The untreated water is discharged directly into the environment, particularly into the ocean, where it can have significant problems. Ecosystems can be affected by oxygen depletion, biodegradation of organic materials and water-borne pathogens. More so, pharmaceuticals and heavy metals that end up in our wastewater will harm ocean environments.

To address the problem of wastewater, San Francisco is looking at ways to recycle wastewater from commercial buildings, homes and neighbourhoods and use it for toilets and landscaping. The city is planning to equip new commercial and residential buildings with on-site recycling plants that will make water for nonpotable use cheaper than buying potable water from a centralized source.

The unit called the Onsite Water Reuse program can be installed in basements where its collection of pipes will collect water from sinks, showers and laundry. The system will recycle wastewater with membrane filtration, ultraviolet light and chlorine and then be sent back upstairs to be used again for nonpotable uses. According to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which will have over 80 systems installed across the city, the Onsite Water Reuse program will save 1.3 million gallons of potable water daily. They hope that these new buildings will be completely self-sufficient by using the same water over and over, potable and nonpotable, in a closed loop.

This reuse and recycle wastewater system isn’t entirely new in San Francisco. In 2015, the city required more than 100 000 square feet of new buildings to have on-site recycling systems. To date, six blackwater (water from toilets) and 25 greywater systems (water from washing machines) are using the technology to recycle wastewater.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s headquarters have a blackwater system that treats its wastewater in engineered wetlands built into the sidewalks around the building. The water is then used to flush low-flow toilets and urinals. Their blackwater system has reduced the building’s imported potable supply by 40 percent. A water recycling company has even brewed a beer with purified graywater from a 40-storey San Francisco apartment building.

With megadrought and water crises becoming even more prominent in light of climate change, decentralized water systems and the ability to recycle wastewater are becoming more important. The safety of direct reuse of recycled wastewater is still being studied, and US regulations still do not allow it. Still, there is potential for a fully circular system to recycle wastewater to become a reality in the near future. We have already seen centralized recycled water systems being used in California as a solution to water shortages. Highly treated wastewater, normally discharged into the ocean, is treated and injected into nearby groundwater. The water is then pumped up and treated to drinking water standards by local utilities.

Moreover, ability to recycle wastewater will also save on the costs of pumping water over long distances and the costs associated with digging up streets to replace and install pipelines. We have the solutions to reduce water scarcity and recycle the resources we already have; we just have to be able to implement them. Representatives from water-stressed cities around the world are even coming to San Fransisco to study their recycling systems, so it may become a reality across the globe.

 

 

 

 

Source  Happy Eco News

New Beer Made from Treated Wastewater Highlights Potential of Water Reuse

Posted on by dishanth
New Beer Made from Treated Wastewater Highlights Potential of Water Reuse

While it’s not the first time it’s been done, Epic OneWater Brew is the latest and perhaps the highest-profile attempt at using treated greywater to make something potable — in this case, beer.

The effort used an intensive filtering and disinfection process to purify 2,000 gallons of water from a San Francisco high-rise to create a “blank slate,” drinking-water-quality product. From there, Epic Cleantec — whose OneWater onsite water-recycling system made Time’s Best Inventions of 2022 list — physically moved that water via totes and trucks to Devil’s Canyon Brewing Co in nearby San Carlos, where brewery owner Chris Garrett and his team created a Kolsch from the liquid.

“It ended up being a really great product,” Garrett told Sustainable Brands.

What makes this version of a recycled-water beer different is the sourcing.

“What’s interesting about Epic is that this is the first example of using water that’s come out of an onsite recycling system,” says Travis Loop, producer and host of water-related media outlet Waterloop (Loop is also a lead organizer of the Pure Water Brewing Alliance, which advocates for responsible water use and reuse in the beer business.).

The process works like this: First, greywater from residential building Fifteen Fifty (which recycles up to 7,500 gallons of water per day, or up to 2.75 million gallons per year) is collected from laundry and showers. Then, it’s treated through Epic’s combination of ultra-filtration (filtering out impurities to the diameter of a human hair follicle), disinfection with ultraviolet light and chlorine, and a granulated activated-carbon (GAC) filter (for reduced mineral content), and typically reused for toilet and urinal flushing within the building. Scientifically speaking, the recycled water is treated to an extremely high level of purity that meets (or even exceeds) federal drinking-water quality standards.

But for this project, 2,000 gallons of that treated water was toted about 30 minutes south on the peninsula for the beer collaboration.

“Typically, a project like this has only been done through a utility,” says Epic Cleantec CEO and co-founder, Aaron Tartakovsky. “Brewers have so much knowledge about water chemistry; so, we wanted to find a contract brewer who would be interested.”

The final result was 7,000 16-oz cans of beer — not available for commercial sale but distributed to an array of water professionals and beer fans, along with a cameo at the recent UN 2023 Water Conference in New York City.

A rep from Epic says the beer “really made the rounds at the conference” and “several breweries reached out to learn more about collaborating.”

Drawing attention to a larger issue.
Of course, the goal of a collaboration like this is to highlight water conservation in a part of the water cycle many don’t really think about.

“We’re a ‘flush and forget’ society,” Tartakovsky says.

US wastewater-treatment facilities process approximately 34 million gallons of water daily; so, there’s seemingly unlimited potential to find new ways to reuse the water that simply goes down a drain.

These brewery/treated-water collaborations have been somewhat of a forefront for the conversation/reuse conversation, with Loop noting at least 100 brewers (both home and professional) who have produced a similar beer to OneWater Brew over the last decade.

“(These beers) are a great public-awareness tool,” he says.

The state of Colorado was a recent example of the movement gaining steam as the latest state to legalize the use of direct potable reuse (DPR) water with Florida, Arizona and California also looking into similar measures. The goal is to help water customers get over any preconceived notions of treated wastewater and redirect it for potable uses.

Everyone involved hopes that the more these collaborations occur, the more they can get people talking about water.

“We should judge water by its quality, not its history,” Loop says.

 

 

 

 

Source Sustainable Brands

 

This tiny solar-powered factory cleans up dirty water

Posted on by dishanth
This tiny solar-powered factory cleans up dirty water

The world’s first completely solar-powered beverage micro-factory started its journey in the spring of 2020, when Swedish startup Wayout International waved its container-sized machine goodbye from the port of Norrköping, south of Stockholm.

With shipping options already radically reduced by Covid-19, the micro-factory set out across the Baltic, Atlantic and Mediterranean seas, via the Suez Canal, stopping by Saudi Arabia, India and Sri Lanka, landing at last in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From there, it went by truck through the developing rural landscape, over the Ngorongoro crater wall at 2,640 metres above sea level, across the great Namiri plains and up to the Mara river. It’s a big change of scene from a noisy industrial site in Sweden to a peaceful eco-tourism camp in northern Serengeti.

It had taken Wayout 18 months to go from idea to complete product. The result is a module that converts sunshine and local groundwater into pristine, potable water – and which can also produce premium craft beer and soft drinks. A single module puts out 150,000 litres of clean, remineralised water per month and lets whoever operates it serve up to eight different types of drinks through the integrated tap station. The micro-famicro-factoryctory is offered for lease and the fully automated beverage production is done via a desktop app letting the local operator – and Wayout, in Stockholm – monitor and control the process remotely. The system in the Serengeti is powered through a 110 kWp solar field with the energy stored in 2,000Ah OPzS batteries.

In the Serengeti, water is abundant, but not fit for drinking. The natural mineral content is extreme, making it corrosive to teeth and internal organs, and the unique ecosystem – including the famous “great migration” of wildebeest – makes the living soil busy with bacterial processes. That is why the micro-factory takes its source water from a local groundwater bore hole and filters it through an advanced integrated treatment system that removes all impurities before remineralising it for optimal taste and quality.

“It started out as a fun project between friends, at a moment when craft beer and micro-brewing was a thing,” says Martin Renck, one of Wayout’s three founders. The first system was developed to be used in the hospitality industry and by major breweries and beverage brands that seek to produce locally and sustainably. As the trio started pitching the concept to prospective clients, they hadn’t realised how urgent the issue of water purification was. “When we listened to the feedback we got – not just in Africa but from all around the warm regions of the planet – it became clear that it was the mineral water that was the really remarkable thing. We realised we not only had a commercial opportunity, but also a greater mission to take on,” Renck says.

 

Martin Renck, co-founder of Wayout. Originally conceived as a way to easily create craft beer, the technology’s ability to produce clean drinking water from virtually any source has proved to be its greatest and most impactful innovation PHOTOGRAPHY CHRISTOPHER HUNT

 

Touching down on the red dirt track at the Kogatende Airstrip in Northern Serengeti, the infrastructural challenges of the region become instantly clear. Here, the dynamics of the natural world still rule; scorching days followed by chilly nights, dry seasons followed by torrential rains, wildebeest and zebras followed by big cats and hyenas, with termites, boomslangs, hyraxes, aardvarks and pangolins filling the gaps. Roads and rivers meander with the seasons. Man-made structures morph and merge with biomass. Good quality drinking water may be as far away as a few days by four-wheel drive, and the distribution logistics leave scars in the sensitive biotope. The effects of the Wayout micro-factory in this location have been profound.

In situ, at the safari operator Asilia’s Sayari Camp, this circular system has eliminated single-use plastic bottles by nearly 18,000 units per year, not only for the camp guests but also for the operating staff and the park rangers in the region. Together with the safari camp operators, the rangers are what protects the national park by maintaining fire breaks, educating locals on the economic upsides of a healthy ecosystem, deterring and removing poachers, and protecting wildlife and people from each other when needed. Easy access to eco-friendly safe drinking water lets the rangers focus on their mission and ultimately improve the experience for the close to 150,000 yearly eco-tourists to the region.

Through the localised production of beverages, Sayari Camp further reduces their environmental impact by avoiding unnecessary waste management and routine long-distance trips. In addition to obvious health benefits, the unlimited supply of safe drinking water also frees up time and resources for families, advancing educational and economic prospects that support long-term development. And the effects have exceeded expectations. “In this location, the transition to a circular and eco-friendly economy in and around the Sayari Camp was more or less instant, which really should make us all think: if this can be done in the far-out region of Northern Serengeti, couldn’t it then be done anywhere?” Renck asks.

Renck says that the pandemic has boosted the interest in their innovation. The company is currently busy finalising its second concept: a “water-as-a-service” offer aimed at regions and nations with greater need for desalination and safe drinking water. One such project is slated for roll-out in early 2022 in a large island nation. By producing drinking water through distributed desalination, the cascade effects of the infrastructure system could help replenish the island’s water table, restore local farming and revitalise important parts of the island’s economy.

“One of the things we as humanity learned from this pandemic is that we can no longer rely on global value chains,” Renck says. “A transition to local and sustainable production of food and beverages [could help] humanity greenwash – in the genuine, positive sense of the word – civilisation.”

 

 

Source Wired

Usage of wastewater and sustainable agriculture can ensure water security in India

Posted on by dishanth
Usage of wastewater and sustainable agriculture can ensure water security in India

Wastewater usage, water-efficient agriculture, knowledge of soil moisture and convergence in agriculture could be possible methods to deal with the twin scourges of climate change and the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to experts at a recent conference on water.

The conference provided an opportunity to policymakers, academicians, researchers and students to gain expertise from technical experts on matters of water resource engineering and management for water source sustainability by including a combination of theory, conceptual and applied science.

The e-conference on water source sustainability was jointly organised by the Indian Water Resources Society and the department of water resources development and management June 18-20, 2021. The main agenda was the demand and supply of water.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has shown that water bodies in India are shrinking in size. “Encroachment is leading to the shrinking of water bodies, which is evident from as many as 87 lakes in Bengaluru that have been encroached upon and have consequently shrunk. How to ensure water supply, its sustainable usage and treatment is the need of the hour,” Chandra Shekhar Jha, scientist and chief general manager, National Remote Sensing Centre, Isro, said.

The conference focussed on various facets of water like management of supply and demand, sustaining water sources in the era of climate change, technological upgradation of traditional methods for water conservation, technological developments for ensuring the sustainability of water sources, treatment technologies and water quality management, people’s active participation in water management and water governance.

Deepankar Saha, former member, Central Ground Water Board explained:

“People’s dependency on groundwater has led to the unplanned and reckless exploitation of ground water sources. There is a need to implement technologies that conserve water and practice sustainable agriculture. Sustainable models should be made on water budgeting, its allocation and management of competitive demand of water in all sectors.”

The conference focused on the analytical and computational aspects of water as well.  It was suggested that protocols should be made on the usage and supply of water. India should also have a buffer stock that can be used during emergencies in the future. In a diverse country like India, different models should be made for different regions.

 

From drip irrigation to sprinkler irrigation, convergence is needed in agriculture. Energy and agriculture should be emphasised in any policy or model of water supply and management.

Neelam Patel, senior advisor on agriculture, NITI Aayog

 

“Substitution of water should be taken into account along with technology, pricing and reuse options. Wastewater should be treated as a resource and not as waste. Once treated and purified, this treated water can be substituted for fresh water. Cohesive decision-making is needed at the central and state level to manage water resources,” Jagdish Prasad Gupta, chief commissioner of state tax, Gujarat explained.

How can we ensure linear water security? Vijay P Singh, a professor at the department of bio and agriculture engineering, A&M University, Texas explained:

“Emphasis should be given to conservation of water and development of alternate sources of water. One can reuse waste water post treatment. An integrated approach is needed to ensure water security by adopting sustainable technologies in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and chemical engineering.”

India is the country with the highest usage of water in agriculture — 13 per cent — followed by China, US and Russia. Singh also emphasised on making agriculture more water-efficient in India.

How can we ensure water security at a time of climate change? A study undertaken by Stacy L Hucthinson from Kansas State University, US, spoke about the geospatial science of water. It noted:

Countries should shift their focus from global and climate change models to regional models. Climate change has impacted rainfall patterns, thereby leading to variations in soil moisture content. Understanding of soil moisture in varied regions will help in understanding water runoff. The precipitation is usually high in summers and one should focus on acts of downscaling.

“Climate change is not just the issue of greenhouse gas emissions anymore,” says Ed McBean, Canada research chair in water supply security, University of Guelph, Canada. He further explained that water bodies reflect huge amount of reflected radiations which leads to an increase in global temperature, thereby leading to the melting of glaciers and increase in sea levels.

Is the agriculture sector in India leading to water scarcity? Neelam Patel, senior advisor on agriculture, at NITI Aayog shared her views: “From drip irrigation to sprinkler irrigation, convergence is needed in agriculture. Energy and agriculture should be emphasised in any policy or model of water supply and management.”

 

 

Source Eco Business

Climatech Corp and Inovues win the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge

Posted on by dishanth
Climatech Corp and Inovues win the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge

Climatech Corp and Inovues are the winners of the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge (CSXC) 2021, a global hunt for sustainability innovations in the built environment.  

Both winners will receive S$50,000 (US$38,000) each to fund, test and implement their innovations at selected CapitaLand properties worldwide, as well as mentorship by a CapitaLand business leader. 

Climatech won the Most Innovative Award for their water treatment process to treat cooling water without the use of chemicals or power, while Inovues won the High Impact Award for their insulating glass retrofit technology.  

Climatech’s solution, known as the ClimaControl Quantum Resonance Water, is a novel solution that allows cooling water to be recycled for other uses in buildings, such as plant irrigation or toilet flushing. Based in Singapore, the company’s solution uses photon vibration frequency technology to treat cooling tower, achieving 60 to over 90 per cent of water savings, and one to over five per cent of energy savings.

From the United States, Inovues’ insulating glass technology reduces energy consumption to heat or cool buildings by up to 40 per cent without compromising on the luminosity indoors. The smart glass technology can be retrofitted on to existing windows, and reduces noise and heat gain inside a building by up to 10 times. Windows are the Achilles’ heel of the built environment, said one of the judges, Rushad Nanavatty, managing director or urban transformation at RMI.

 

The two winners will also have the chance to showcase their innovations to senior global business leaders, investors and policymakers at the annual Ecosperity Week sustainability event organised by Temasek. 

“Research and innovation leading to commercialisation is a space where public and private sectors must collaborate. Research can be long-dated and involves high risk. Governments must support and fund it. Innovation and commercialisation of products of research require entrepreneurial acumen and nimble responses. This is where many enterprises have strengths,” said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore, Grace Fu, who was the guest-of-honour at the grand finale.

 

Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group chief executive officer announces the CapitaLand Innovation Fund at the CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge grand finale. Image: CapitaLand

 

The themes for the inaugural challenge were low carbon transition, water conservation and resilience, waste management and circular economy, and healthy and safe buildings. 

The winning solutions emerged from a shortlist that included a portable, self-powered energy generator cum chiller, a thermal insulation curtain wall, a smart waste bin which uses artificial intelligence to sort waste, and an indoor air disinfection solution. All six finalists and selected participants will have a chance to pilot their innovations at selected CapitaLand properties worldwide.

At the grand finale, CapitaLand also announced a S$50 million innovation fund to support the test-bedding of sustainability and other high-tech innovations in the built environment. 

Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group chief executive officer said: “The inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge has allowed us to uncover promising innovations that we can potentially implement at our properties across the globe, and help us achieve our ambitious targets set out in our 2030 Sustainability Master Plan.”

 

 

By Sonia Sambhi

Source Eco Business