meda water projects sustainablewater … · mediterranean countries / medaware cy, gr, jo, lb, ma,...

PR OJECT TITLE / ACRO NYM Count r i esi nvo l v ed C O O R D I N ATI O N I N FO R M ATI O N

Autonomous desalination system concepts for sea water and brackish waterin rural areas with renewable energies – Potentials, Technologies,Field Experience, Socio-technical and Socio-economic impacts / ADIRA

DE, EG, ES,GR, JO, MA,

TR

Agr icul tura l Univers i t y of Athens,Dept . of Natura l Resources andAgr icul tura l Engineer ing (GR)

www.adira.info

Development of tools and guidelines for the promotion of the sustainableurban wastewater treatment and reuse in the agricultural production in theMediterranean countries / MEDAWARE

CY, GR, JO,LB, MA, PS,

SP, TR

National Technical University Athens,School of chemical Engineering.

Unit of Environmental Sciences (GR)

147.102.83.100/projects/

meda/meda.htm

Efficient Management of Wastewater, its Treatment and Re-Usein the Mediterranean Countries / EMWATER

DE, IT, JO,LB, PS, TR

InWent - Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft(DE)

Euro-Med Participatory Water Resources Scenarios / EMPOWERS EG, JO, NL,PS, UK

CARE International(UK)

www.emwater.org

Improvement of irrigation water management in Lebanon and Jordan /IRWA

ES, IT, JO,LB

Istituto per la CooperazioneUniversitaria (IT)

www.irwaproject.com

Institutional and social innovations in irrigation mediterranean management / EG, ES, FR,IT, LB, MA

Agropolis (FR) www.isiimm.agropolis.fr

Mediterranean Drought Preparedness and Mitigation Planning /MEDROPLAN

CY, ES, GR,IT, MA, TN

Mediterranean Agronomic Instituteof Zaragoza (ES)

www.iamz.ciheam.org/medroplan

Stakeholder Participatory Sustainable Water Management at Farm LevelMEDWA

AT, ES, JO,PS

HWA – Hilfswerk Austria (AT) www.hilfswerk-austria.at

Sustainable concepts towards a zero outflow municipality / Zer0-M AT, EG, GE,GR, IT, MA,

TN, TR

Institute for sustainable technologies(AT)

www.zero-m.org

www.emwis.org/meda/projects.htmMEDA WATER PROJECTS

ISIIMM

www.empowers.info

CONCEPTS TOWARDS A ZER0-OUTFLOW MU N IC IPAL ITY

P. 11

P. 18

P. 26

SUSTAINABLE WATERMANAGEMENT 1-2006

ECOLOGICAL SANITATIONWorldwide, there is a disastrous situation in the field of waste-water collection and treatment. Many surface waters are pol-luted with raw wastewater and untreated faeces which presenta big danger for the population. Additionally, water scarcity isincreasing as is soil degradation. It is a challenge to participatein the development of emerging new concepts like EcologicalSanitation.

P. 3

Rainwater harvesting has been practiced for morethan 4,000 years. In many countries it is becoming aconsiderable alternative for water supply, becauseof the shortage and limitations of other conventionalwater resources.

Water scarcity in dry areas is a very critical issue forsustainable development. Greywater treatment andthe use for poverty reduction in rural areas is shownby means of three projects in Jordan.

RAINWATER CISTERN SYSTEMS

KNOW HOW TRANSFER BETWEENWATER SCARCE COUNTRIES

AUTONOMOUS DESALINATION

The problem of water scarcity has given rise to theevaluation and development of alternative ap-proaches to the existing water supply practices. De-centralized systems have been drawing significantattention in the last decades especially for smallcommunities in remote areas.

ZER M

This project is funded by the

EUROPEAN UNION

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Wels

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This journal, “Sustainable Water Management”, is an initiative of the pro-ject “Sustainable Concepts towards a Zero Outflow Municipality (Zer0-M). The project is part of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional ProgrammeFor Local Water Management of the European Union (MEDA-Water)

and the Countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.Zer0-M aims at concepts and technologies to achieve optimised close-

loop usage of all water flows in small municipalities or settlements (e.g. tour-ism facilities)–the Zero Outflow Municipality (Zer0-M). The basis to such asanitation is to abandon the concept of wastewater as we can not afford towaste any water, as well as the nutrients contained in it.

The discussion about how to best reclaim water is still going on. Risks as-sociated with the practice have to be truly assessed and measures designed toprevent them. In this respect we should always keep in mind that saved drink-ing water is ready to be used for new purposes without any treatment, it is un-polluted and bears no risks.

Saving drinking water includes such different sanitation techniques as us-ing water efficient appliances and systems, substituting drinking water withgreywater, rainwater or reclaimed wastewater for some domestic purposes,or totally substituting the use of water, e.g. with modern and convenient drytoilets.

This second issue of the journal is discussing some possibilities, whichwere presented at the first Zer0-M Conference on Sustainable Water Manage-ment organised in Turkey in March 2005. It includes papers by scientists in EUand MEDA countries working in the field of sustainable water managementand contributions of partner projects in the MEDA program. You find a list ofthe projects at the end this journal. Check out their homepages for further in-teresting information on sustainable water management.

If you want to discuss some of the issues presented here, do not hesitate tovisit the Zer0-M forum on its homepage www.zer0-m.org. Registration thereis easy and open to everybody. Your contributions will be most welcome.

If you are from one of the partner countries you may also directly contactthe Zer0-M partner at home. Have a look at our homepage for upcomingevents, e.g. conferences, training workshops, etc. in your country. The com-plete list of the consortium members is as below:

(1) AEE Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE INTEC), Applicant, Austria(2) Associazione Ambiente e Lavoro Toscana – O.N.L.U.S. (ALT), Italy(3) Tübitak-Marmara Research Center (MRC-ESERI), Turkey(4) Water Research & Pollution Control Department, National Research Cen-

tre, Dokki, Cairo, (NRC), Egypt(5) Institut National de Recherche Scientifique et Technique, Laboratoire Eau

et Environnement (LEE), Tunesia(6) Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Wastewater Treatment

and Reuse Unit (WTRU), Morocco(7) Institute for Geography and Regional Research, University of Vienna

(IGR), Austria(8) TU Berlin, Central Co-operation and “Fachgebiet Verfahrenstechnik I”

(TUB), Germany(9) University Hannover, Zentrale Einrichtung für Weiterbildung

(weiterBILDUNG), Germany(10) Fachvereinigung Betriebs- und Regenwassernutzung e.V. (fbr), Germany

We received a very positive echo on the first issue of this journal. We hopeto be able to stand up to the expectations we have created and will be glad forany comment or recommendation from our readers.

For the Consortium: Martin Regelsberger

List of Funding Organisations

• European Union, Meda Water Program of EuropeAid Co-operation office• Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs• Agenzia regionale per la protezione ambientale della Toscana, Italy• Acque S.p.A. , Italy• Tübitak-Marmara Research Center, Turkey• National Research Center, Egypt• Sécretariat dEtat à la Recherche Scientifique et de la Technologie, Tunisia• Population of El Attaouia, beneficiary of pilot plant, Morocco• Technische Universität Berlin, Germany• Zentrale Einrichtung für Weiterbildung, Germany• fbr association and member companies, Germany

E D I T O R I A L C O N T E N T S

Resource Efficient Wastewater ConceptsEcological Sanitation

By Claudia Wendland, Felix Tettenbornund Ralf Otterpohl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Sanitation as a Resource Management Systemin Urban Conditions

By Martin Oldenburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Prevailing Situation of Turkish UrbanWastewater Treatment Plants

By I. Arslan-Alaton, M. Gurel, G. Iskender,S. Ovez, A. Tanik and D. Orhon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Use of Rainwater Cistern SystemsRWCS as an Alternative for FreshwaterAugmentation

By Deniz Dolgen, Ahment Baban andM. Necdet Alpaslan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Use of Rapid Infiltration Technique for AquiferRecharge with Treated WastewaterDesign of Souhil Wadi (Nabeul-Tunisia) Pilot Plant

By Hamadi KALLALI, Mitsuo YOSHIDA,Salah JELLALI, Abdennaceur HASSENand Naceur JEDIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Greywater Treatment and Use For PovertyReduction in Rural AreasExchange of Know-How Between WaterScarce Countries

By Shihab Najib Al-Beiruti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Anaerobic Treatment of Industrial WastewatersBy Ilda DEGIRMENTAS and Nuran DEVECI . . 21

Pollution Preventions in Industrial Plants:A General View

By Nihal Bektas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Autonomous Desalinationas an Alternative Approach to DecentralizedWater Management

By Seval Sözen, Senem Teksoy, Serden Basakand Asli Çiggin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Windpowered Seawater Desalination PlantBy Ulrich Plantikow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

MEDA Water ProjectsAn Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Backcover

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Eigentümer, Herausgeber und Verleger / Published byAEE INTEC – Arbeitsgemeinschaft ERNEUERBARE ENERGIE – Institut fürNachhaltige Technologien / Institute for Sustainable TechnologiesA-8200 Gleisdorf, Feldgasse 19, Tel.: +43 (0)3112 / 5886Redaktion / Editors team: Elif Atasoy, Irene Bergmann, MartinRegelsberger, Barbara Regelsberger“Sustainable Water Management” wird im Projekt Zer0-Mvor allem für Wasserfachleute und Entscheidungsträger in denProjektländern herausgegeben. Bis zum Ende des Projektserscheinen zwei Hefte pro Jahr.“Sustainable Water Management” is issued within the Zer0-Mproject mainly for water experts and decision makers. Through-out the project it will come out twice a year.Bankverbindung / Banking account:Raiffeisenbank Gleisdorf, Kto.-Nr. 104.430, BLZ 38103, IBAN:AT09 3810 3000 0010 4430, SWIFT-BIC-CODE: RZSTAT2G103WWW: http://www.aee-intec.at, http://www.zero-m.orgTypo, repro & design by Steinhuber Infodesign, GrazDruck und Versand / Printed and mailed by:Universitätsdruckerei Klampfer, 8160 WeizAuflage / Number of copies: 3.500

SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT 1-2006

I M P R I N T

RESOURCE EFFICIENTWASTEWATER CONCEPTSECOLOGICAL SANITATION

By CLAUDIA WENDLAND, FELIX TETTENBORNand RALF OTTERPOHL*

Worldwide, there is a disastrous situation in the field of wastewater

collection and treatment: About 2.4 billion people have no access to

adequate sanitation, 2.8 billion people use simple pit latrines and

in many countries the conventional wastewater treatment works

are insufficient. Many surface waters are polluted with raw

wastewater and untreated faeces which presents a major danger for

the population. This situation contributes highly to the 5 million

people who die every year due to water-borne diseases.

*) Prof. Ralf Otterpohl, Felix Tettenborn and Claudia Wendland areworking at the Institute of Wastewater Management of Hamburg Uni-versity of Technology with a focus on Ecological Sanitation. ClaudiaWendland is project manager in the EU-project „Efficient Manage-ment of Wastewater, its Treatment and Reuse in the MediterraneanCountries“ (EMWater) which is part of the MEDA program,[email protected]

Additionally water scarcity is increasing more andmore as well as soil degradation. Also for theMediterranean countries, these issues are of cru-cial importance and alternatives are urgently re-

quired. For rural and peri urban areas, alternative, in-novative solutions have been developed, applied andare available today (Ecological Sanitation).

The principles of these Ecological Sanitation (Eco-San) concepts are source control and the hygienisationof the wastewaters followed by water and nutrient re-use in agriculture.

BASIC CONSIDERATIONS

The major objective for sanitation is minimizing hy-gienic risks. New systems should be better than con-ventional sanitation systems which have a good hy-gienic standard for inside the houses but in most casesnot for receiving waters. Thus, a closer look at thewastewater itself can help to find the right solution.

Table 1: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAIN COMPONENTSOF HOUSEHOLD WASTEWATER[OTTERPOHL 2001a]

Wastewater from different sources has different dis-tinctive characteristics. Thus, household wastewatersare described by colors: grey for little polluted waterfrom the kitchen, washing, etc., black for toilet waste-water, which can be divided further into brown (fae-ces) and yellow (urine) [Otterpohl 2001]. The most im-portant parameters are shown in table 1.

Table 1 leads to the following conclusions:1. Most of the soluble nutrients (N, P, K) of domesticwastewater are contained in the comparably small vol-ume flow of „yellow water“. Separately collectedurine, converted for agricultural usage, is the biggeststep towards nutrient reuse, highly efficient water pro-tection, and improved wastewater treatment. More-

3

RESOURCE EFFICIENT WASTEWATER CONCEPTS – Ecological Sanitation CLAUDIA WENDLAND, FELIX TETTENBORN and RALF OTTERPOHL


over, urine contains trace metals required for plantgrowth. Thus, yellow water has to be taken into consid-eration as a fertilizer. It is related to the nutrient cyclerather than to the water cycle.2. The increasing focus on residual organic pollutantslike pharmaceuticals, which are distributed by humanwastewater in the surface waters, supports the installa-tion of source separation systems. With the separationof urine, the wide spread of these components in thenatural environment can be avoided.3. The hygienic danger of wastewater comes almostexclusively from pathogens contained in faecal mat-ter. Faeces suspended in the huge volume flow ofgreywater means spreading the pathogens in a largevolume of water, making it more expensive to reclaimthis for reuse. Separation and low or no dilution opensthe way to excellent hygienisation. – „Brown water“contributes greatly to the phosphorus load of domes-tic wastewater and thus can also be considered a fertil-izer. The organic solids make brown water an excel-lent soil conditioner after suitable treatment. There-fore, brown water also belongs to the nutrient cyclewhich should not be mixed with the water cycle.4. Wastewater that is not mixed with human waste(faeces and urine) – so called „greywater“ – is the big-gest volume part of all. Because of its low contributionto the mass flow of the nutrients, greywater representsa splendid source for high quality reuse. Greywatercontains nearly half of the organic load of domesticwastewater. Removing these pollutants before the pos-sible reuse of greywater is far less expensive than theadditional removal of nutrients, as it is realized inmodern wastewater treatment plants. Bio-sandfiltersand membrane technology pave the way to cost-effi-cient ways of producing secondary water – the on-site,local, or regional scale can be appropriate.5. Rainwater runoff is one of the reasons for buildingsewerage systems. Local infiltration or trenches to sur-face waters for relatively unpolluted rainwater are of-ten feasible and can be combined with usage.

Any sanitation system aims for a hygienically

sound situation as efficient as possible. In EcoSan thisis achieved by separating the water cycle from the nu-trient cycle, and closing both loops.

TWO EXAMPLES FOR ECOLOGICALSANITATION

Many examples worldwide, as well in industrial-ized as in the developing world, prove not only the fea-sibility, but show how beneficial these concepts are[GTZ 2003]. Two EcoSan systems are presented here,one in Germany and one in the Ukraine.

Lambertsmühle, GermanyAn advantageous low-cost and low maintenance

system with the potential for full resource recovery forsmaller villages and single houses is based on urinesorting flush toilets (no-mix-toilets).

Yellow water is collected without dilution and isused after storage directly in agriculture. Brownwateris treated in a two-chamber separation unit (Rotte-behaelter) where each chamber is used for half a yearand left without further charging the other half. Thecompost produced can be used to improve long-termsoil fertility. The filtrate from the separation unit is lowin nutrients due to the previous separation of urine.Therefore, the filtrate can be treated together with thegreywater (except if the high quality reuse of grey-water is planned).

Apilot project of this system is in operation in an an-cient water-mill museum ’Lambertsmühle’ in Ger-many. In connection with the restoration of the build-ing, this sanitation solution has been developed. Theurine sorting toilets collect the urine undiluted (Roedi-ger) or little diluted (Gustavsberg) (see fig. 1). Thefaeces are flushed with an appropriate volume of wa-ter (2 - 6 L per flush).

Greywater from the kitchen, bathroom etc. is treatedin a constructed wetland and then discharged to the re-ceiving water. Ascheme of the sanitation concept regard-ing the water and the nutrient cycle, is shown in fig. 3.

Gozhuli, the UkraineAn EcoSan system which is particularly reasonable

in regions with no central water supply and no propersanitation system (except pit-latrines) is the applica-tion of dry urine diverting toilets.

The principle and use of these urine diverting toi-lets (or variations) has been established for manyyears in countries like Mexico, China and Vietnam.This kind of toilet consists of a toilet room with a seatriser or slab for urine diversion. For each toilet thereare two (double vault) easily accessible faeces-cham-bers with a sealed floor made of concrete. The vaultsare designed such that one vault is in use for a minimumof 1 year, then allowed to rest for one year while theother chamber is used. Ventilation pipes are installedfrom the faeces-chambers to above the roof to supplythe vault with oxygen and avoid odour and flies.

The urine from the toilets and the waterless urinalsis collected in two urine tanks and can be applied in ag-riculture.

4

Fig. 1:

URINE SORTINGTOILETS

(Lower left two of

the German company

Roediger, lower right

two of the Norwegian

company Gustavsberg)



In Gozhuli, in the Ukraine, it could be shown thatthe installation of double vault urine diverting toiletsis a low cost, very fast, and easy to realise solution toprotect the groundwater and to improve health condi-tions [Deegener et al 2005].

CONCLUSIONS

It is a challenge to participate in the development ofemerging new concepts like Ecological Sanitation. Pro-fessional skills and the open-minded search for solu-tions are needed to further find better ways for futuresanitation. An open dialogue and the exchange of ex-periences are essential in order to make progress.There are many possibilities that all social and eco-nomic conditions will be met. Creativity is needed tofind the appropriate technology and the best way ofimplementing, operating, and financing it.

Since Ecological Sanitation delivers advantageslike the safe reuse of excreta-derived nutrients (whichare not diluted and contaminated), keeping contami-

nants away from water bodies, and saving money,these schemes exceed conventional sanitation systemswith regard to ecological and economic sustainability.

REFERENCES

� Deegener, S., Otterpohl, R., Samwel, M., Gabizon, S.(2005), Ecosan – a step towards sustainable rural devel-

opment in Eastern Europe Proceeding of the 3rd In-ternational Conference on Ecological Sanitation, 23- 26 May 2005, Durban, South Africa

� GTZ (2003), Proceeding of 2nd International Sympo-

sium on Ecological Sanitation, ecosan – closing the loop,7 - 11 April 2003, Lübeck, Germany

� Otterpohl R. (2001), Black, brown, yellow, grey – thenew colours of sanitation, Water 21, Magazine of theInternational Water Association 10/2001, pp 37 - 41

� Otterpohl R. (2001a), Design of highly efficient source

control sanitation and practical experiences, in: Decen-tralised Sanitation and Reuse, pp 164 - 179 (Lens P.,Zeemann G. and Lettinga G., Eds) IWA Publ.

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Fig. 2:

SCHEME OF ECOSANCONCEPTLAMBERTSMÜHLE[OTTERPOHL 2001a]

Fig. 3:

NEW TOILETSIN A SCHOOLIN GOZHULI,THE UKRAINE,INSIDE ANDOUTSIDE



SANITATION AS ARESOURCE MANAGE-MENT SYSTEM INURBAN CONDITIONSBy MARTIN OLDENBURG*

The aim of sanitation as a resource management system is to use the

nutrients as well as water after an appropriate treatment. The funda-

mental idea of these alternatives is based on the principle of separat-

ing the different flows of domestic wastewater according to their

characteristics. This general idea is very well known in the field of

industrial wastewater. The separation at source enhanced the appro-

priate treatment and is the prerequisite for the utilisation of nutri-

ents as well as of water. Examples for these different sanitation con-

cepts for urban conditions will be given below.

*) Martin Oldenburg is managing director and partner of the consul-tancy OtterWasser GmbH, Engelsgrube 81, 23552 Lübeck, Germany,[email protected]

GENERAL IDEA

For most of the areas in Europe the bad hygienicconditions caused by the lack of proper sanitation facil-ities are solved at first by the discharge of wastewaterinto the water bodies. In the light of the increasing den-sity of the population and water-borne diseases, sewersystems and wastewater plants were introduced.

For the technically developed world the solution isthe connection to sewer systems during the last centu-ries, but no serious alternative has ever been exam-ined. Historically, reasonable alternatives like dry toi-lets or vacuum toilets existed but they were widely ig-nored and had no chance of wide distribution.

So, the flush-based sanitation system became thestandard sanitation system. It works well in wealthycountries with large water supplies. For a long time re-ducing the flush water volume seemed to be the singlepossible improvement of the water-flush systems.

But in countries with a water scarcity these sanita-tion systems fail after a few years. Frequent reasonsfor failure are too low flush volumes, which are notable to transport the solids of the wastewater, the lackof maintenance of these systems and the misuse of sew-ers as disposals for solid and liquid litter.

The conventional sanitation system with water forflushing and transportation represents the concept ofthe dilution discharging nutrients like nitrogen, phos-phorus and potassium as well as harmful substanceslike pathogens, pharmaceutical residuals and hor-mones (endocrine disrupters) into the receiving wa-ters. Despite the low concentration of these sub-stances, the loads cannot be ignored. In particularsome of these harmful substances can in the meantimebe identified in groundwater as well as in the raw wa-ter of the waterworks.

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Fig. 1: DISTRIBUTION OF VOLUMES ANDCONCENTRATIONS IN BLACK AND GREY WATER

SANITATION AS A RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN URBAN CONDITIONS MARTIN OLDENBURG


Furthermore the conventional sanitation systemworks like an end-of-pipe technology mixing the dif-ferent flows and their different characteristics andtreating them at the end of the pipe.

Phosphorus as a main fertilizing substance is onlyavailable in limited conditions. Estimations of theavailable phosphorus resources have been calculatedon a time scale of 120 to 150 years depending on the in-crease in the use of fertilizers. So the end of phospho-rus as a natural resource becomes obvious.

Fig. 1 shows the very different characteristics of do-mestic wastewater flows with reference to their vol-umes and loads per capita and year.

In this figure the volume and loads of nutrients forthe blackwater (faeces diluted with flushing waterfrom a vacuum toilet system) and the greywater is in-vestigated for a housing estate in Northern Germany.The project will be described in detail below.

The distribution of volumes and concentrations istypical for these flows and can be described as follows:� The volume of humane excreta (faeces and urine) is

very low compared with the greywater from thekitchen or bathroom.

� The predominant source of nitrogen is the blackwa-ter. It is known, that more than 80% of the nitrogenis found in urine

� The main fraction of phosphorus and potassium isfound in the human excreta fraction

� The greywater is very slightly polluted with nutri-ents. The phosphorus load in the greywater iscaused by dish-washer detergents which containup to 30% of phosphorus

� The separate collection of the nutrient rich fractions(like blackwater as well as separated into urine(yellowwater) and faeces (brownwater) and its ap-propriate treatment allows nutrient recovery andutilization e.g. as a fertilizer.The installation of new sanitation equipment like

toilets and urinals is mandatory for resource manage-ment systems. An overview of these facilities is givenin [1].

VACUUM BIOGAS SYSTEMS

In Lübeck-Flintenbreite, Germany, a decentralisedsanitation concept has been realised in an urban area.

On a total estate area of 5.4 ha terraced houses, dou-ble houses and flat units are planned. In addition acommunity building for flats and the installation of alltechnical infrastructure facilities is erected.

As by now, 106 inhabitants are connected to theplant with a maximum capacity of 350 persons.

Greywater and blackwater (wastewater originatingfrom toilets) are collected and treated separately. In-side the houses vacuum-toilets are installed and con-nected to a vacuum sewer system. By using these vac-uum-toilets (see fig. 3) the volume of the flush-watercan be reduced down to 0,7 L per flush. The low dilu-tion of the blackwater enables anaerobic treatment,and the nutrients in the treated blackwater can be usedas a fertilizer.

From the view of the user the use of the vacuum toi-let is similar to conventional flush-toilets, only the

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Fig. 2: FLOW SCHEME OF THE SANITATION SYSTEM IN LÜBECK-FLINTENBREITE



noise when sucking away the blackwater is differentto gravity flush systems.

After mixing the collected blackwater with grindedbio-waste the material is thermally hygienised and fer-mented anaerobically in a biogas plant. The biogaswill be used in a central heat and power unit for en-ergy and heat production for the settlement.

Despite the common treatment of urine and faeceswith its high nitrogen concentrations of more than1 g/L ammonia, the treatment in the biogas plantworks without any inhibitions or other negative im-pacts.

Greywater is drained by gravity and treated in avertical flow constructed wetland. The main parts ofthe system have been in operation since the beginningof 2000.

The average water consumption for the last fiveyears is about 68 L/(PE*d), whereof approximately62 L/(PE*d) is greywater. Greywater is very poor in ni-trogen as extensive measurement campaigns haveproven (see fig. 1).

The technical system is operated by an operation com-pany which is responsible for all of the technical installa-tions on the housing estate; this means the operation andmaintenance of the technical installation in and outsideof the houses and of the external green areas.

Because of the low energy standard of the houses,the water saving installations and the vacuum-toiletsoperated by a separate company, the operation costsare 20 - 30% less compared to conventional houses.

URINE SEPARATING SYSTEMS

Starting with the Scandinavian countries, urine sep-arating toilets are in use in different projects. Mean-while different types of separation toilets are known

and the experience with these types of toilets is increas-ing. In addition to these toilets, waterless urinals areavailable to a growing market. Especially in buildingswith public toilets (schools, motorway service areasetc.) with a high user frequency, the installation ofthese sanitation facilities using no water can save a lotof money. Both facilities are a prerequisite for urineseparation with the intention of concentrating the nu-trients from the source and their following use.

Several large-scale projects with urine separationare in the planning state or under construction. For apart of the new settlement “Solar City” (88 flats and aschool) in Linz, Austria, a urine separating waste-water system was realized. The school building isequipped with urine separating, squatting toilets aswell as waterless urinals and the flats only with theurine separation toilets. Up to now, the acceptance ofthe new type of toilets is good and the inhabitantshave not remarked on any differences to the conven-tional system. The urine is colleted in urine storagetanks in the housing areas which are emptied regu-larly. Brownwater (faeces with flushwater) and thegreywater are transported in one system and treatedin constructed wetlands with a filter unit as a pre-treat-ment stage for the separation of solids. The solids,mainly from the brownwater, are treated by a vermi-composting stage in aerobic conditions. Urine and theproduct of the vermi-composting shall be investigatedfor a possible use later on.

In Berlin the Centre of Competence for Water(Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin) together with itspartners Berliner Wasserbetriebe and Veolia Water hasstarted a demonstration project on new sanitation con-cepts, which is funded by the EU-Life program [2]. Inorder to define the experiments for testing new, sus-tainable sanitation concepts a pre-study has been per-formed. This study included a cost comparison be-tween two new sanitation concepts with gravity andvacuum separation toilets and the conventional sys-tem. It could be demonstrated that the new sanitationconcepts may have cost advantages depending on thesituation. This was a further motivation to start a Dem-onstration project near Berlin testing the innovativetoilet systems under realistic conditions. The opera-tion of the sanitation concept was started in an officebuilding in October 2003 und was extended to anapartment house in 2005. Different type of separationtoilets (gravity and vacuum systems) are tested as wellas different possibilities for the treatment of the flows.The project was extended by a Life Cost assessmentand investigations concerning the use of the productson farmlands.

REFERENCES

[1] Wach, F.G., Sanitary facilities, Sustainable WaterManagement 1-2005, 36 - 39

[2] KompetenzZentrum Wasser, http://kompetenz-wasser.de/dt/projekte/proj_scst.htm

8

Fig. 3:

VACUUM TOILET



PREVAILING SITUATIONOF TURKISH URBANWASTEWATER TREAT-MENT PLANTSBy I. ARSLAN-ALATON, M. GUREL, G. ISKENDER, S. OVEZ,A. TANIK and D. ORHON*

According to recent official records, there are a total number of 129

urban wastewater treatment plants (UWWTPs) in Turkey serving a

grand total of 30.374.000 capita in 81 provinces, among which 28

plants are located in the 12 Greater Metropolitan cities [1]. Al-

though at first sight one may conclude that only approximately 45%

of the country’s overall population is “sewered” and officially re-

ceives wastewater treatment services, this number should be con-

sidered with care for a developing country facing economic con-

straints and imbalances.

*) Idil Arslan-Alaton is an Assoc. Prof., [email protected]; MelikeGurel is an Assist. Prof., [email protected]; Gulen Iskender is anAssoc. Prof., [email protected]; Suleyman Ovez is an Instruc-tor, [email protected]; Aysegul Tanik is a Prof., [email protected];Derin Orhon is a Prof. – All the authors are from the Istanbul Techni-cal University, Department of Environmental Engineering, Maslak, Is-tanbul, 34469, Turkey.

This study is part of the MEDAWARE project thatrefers to the outcome of a detailed survey of thecurrent situation of Turkish UWWTPs and re-flects a unique and comprehensive example of

sustainable wastewater management in a typical de-veloping country.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of the project are to identify theprevailing situation of water resources, urbanwastewater treatment and management in Turkey, todevelop tools and a database for the promotion of sus-tainable urban wastewater treatment, to improve thealready existing national policy, and to establish guide-lines to be utilized by the responsible authorities onthe most efficient solutions regarding the operation ofthe wastewater treatment systems.

EXPECTED RESULTS

The expected results will be the establishment of areliable database representing the prevailing situationin the country regarding water resources andwastewater treatment practices, a transfer of knowl-edge within the entire country by means of the estab-lishment of a network, the heightening of publicawareness and an increase in the education level withregard to the problems likely to be encountered, thestrengthening of the active involvement of all the per-sons affected and involved in water planning andwastewater management. The main purpose of thisstudy is the identification of the existing situation re-garding water resources and wastewater manage-ment applications in the country which will act as thefirst and the most important milestone for sustainablemanagement strategies.

Fig. 1 shows the provinces of the country with re-spect to the number of UWWTPs. As can be seen fromthe figure, 43 provinces have urban wastewater treat-ment plants. There are a total number of 129 UWWTPsin operation in the country according to the recent offi-cial records. A total number of 28 plants in cities arethose that are located in 12 of the Greater Metropolitancities. For example, Istanbul Greater MetropolitanCity, being the most crowded city of the country, has13 urban UWWTPs, followed by 14 plants in Antalyaalong the south-western coast, and six treatmentplants in the highly industrialized province of Kocaelinear Istanbul.

The data collected suggests that most of the peopleto benefit from UWWTPs are those residing in theGreater Metropolitan cities. However, the Greater Met-ropolitan Municipalities have still not managed to con-struct and operate a sufficient number of UWWTPs.For example, the total population that benefits fromUWWTPs represent approximately 45% of the coun-try’s overall population. The ratio of the municipalpopulation to the total population of the country wasstated as approximately 80% in year 1997 [2]. The num-ber of municipalities having wastewater treatment fa-

9

PREVAILING SITUATION OF TURKISH URBAN WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS I. ARSLAN-ALATON, M. GUREL, G. ISKENDER, S. OVEZ, A. TANIK and D. ORHON


cilities was recorded as 115 in 1995 [3] and 119 in 1998[4], with the expectation that this figure would in-crease up to a number of 129 in the year 2000. Owingto the financial constraints and the economic crisesfaced in the period between 2001 and 2002, the num-ber of plants foreseen was realized by the end of De-cember 2003 [1]. Another reason for the delay in con-structing UWWTPs is the lack of coordination be-tween the institutions involved which highly affects

the distribution of infrastruc-ture investments. Besides,the lack of sufficient techni-cal personnel in municipali-ties leads to problems withthe operation, the accom-plishment of repairs andmaintenance and renewalwork. The share of the in-vestment costs of UWWTPsin the general budget that isgradually decreasing has in-creased the external credit

demands of the municipalities. The financing andequipment provided from abroad are more expensivethan in the domestic market and this raises the costs ofprojects [5].

DISPOSAL METHODS

Among the total number of 129 treatment plants, 46of them are physical treatment plants, 74 consist of bio-logical treatment units and nine feature advancedtreatment. The distribution of existing plants accord-ing to treatment technologies applied are 36% physi-cal, 57% biological and 7% advanced. Most of the ad-vanced treatment practices take place in coastalGreater Metropolitan Municipalities like Istanbul,Izmir, and Antalya that discharge their effluent intothe sea. A breakdown of the effluent receiving bodies,the total effluent flow for each category and the respec-

tive percentages are summarized in table 1. Accordingto the table, treated municipal effluent is mainly dis-charged into flowing receiving water bodies likerivers, creeks, and the coastal and deep sea environ-ment. Those discharged into rivers and creeks arepartly directly and/or indirectly used for irrigationpurposes.

DATA SURVEY

During the data inventory stage of the study, it wasa time-consuming task to collect all the data available.Besides, some of the data had to be estimated based onliterature surveys and personal contacts with the re-lated governmental personnel. Part of the data necessi-tated confirmation and is considered to be less reli-able. A systematic database still needs to be estab-lished to record the data properly and to make thissomething that can be easily accomplished even bythe public. New developments should be immediatelyincluded in the databank and all the obtainable infor-mation must be updated. Regarding the findings ofthe survey, it can be seen that there is an imbalance inthe distribution of the population in the country, mak-ing the water and wastewater issues a difficult task.Most of the population is settled around the coasts ofthe country and the highly industrialized regions.Among the many reasons for this fact, the most impor-tant ones may be referred to as climatic conditions,geographical structure, the existence of transportationnetworks, the fertility of the land, and political aspects.Sustainable wastewater management can be promotedunless the existing situation is well defined. It also ne-cessitates the investigation of the national monitoringand control acts since without an idea of the nationalwater and wastewater policies it is very hard to estab-lish a healthy and satisfactory management strategy.

This work is a part of the project titled “Develop-ment of Tools and Guidelines for the Promotion of theSustainable Urban Wastewater Treatment and Reusein the Agricultural Production in the MediterraneanCountries (Project Acronym: MEDAWARE)” which isfinancially supported by the European Commission,Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, Euro-Mediterra-nean Regional Program for Local Water Management.

REFERENCES

[1] Municipalities (2003). Personal communicationwith each of the municipalities with UWWTP(s).

[2] SIS (2000). General report on demography. TurkishRepublic State Institute of Statistics, Istanbul.

[3] SIS (1995). Environmental statistics, river basinsstatistics. Turkish Republic State Institute of Statis-tics, Istanbul.

[4] SIS (1998). Environmental statistics, river basinsstatistics. Turkish Republic State Institute of Statis-tics, Istanbul.

[5] SPO (2001). 8th Five year development plan (2001-2005). Chapter Eight, Turkish Prime Ministry, TheState Planning Organization (SPO), Ankara.

10

Fig. 1:

PROVINCESOF TURKEY ANDDISTRIBUTIONOF THE COUNTRY’SUWWTPS

Effluent DisposalMethod

Numberof Plants

% of sumof plants

Total EffluentFlow (m3year-1)

% of TotalEffluent Flow

Land (Agricultural Area) 17 13 131 319 517 6

Dams, Lakes 10 8 68 622 832 3

Coastal, Marine 49 38 1 150 746 062 55

Streams, Rivers, Creeks 53 41 732 780 646 35

TOTAL 129 100 2 083 469 057 100

Table 1: EFFLUENT DISCHARGE METHODS AND PRACTICES IN TURKEY

Fig. 2:

TRICKLING FILTERWITH ROTATINGSPRINKLER

PREVAILING SITUATION OF TURKISH URBAN WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS I. ARSLAN-ALATON, M. GUREL, G. ISKENDER, S. OVEZ, A. TANIK and D. ORHON


USE OF RAINWATERCISTERN SYSTEMSRWCS AS AN ALTERNATIVE FORFRESHWATER AUGMENTATION

By DENIZ DOLGEN, AHMENT BABAN andM.NECDET ALPASLAN*

Rainwater harvesting has been practiced for more than 4,000 years,

and in most countries, it is becoming a considerable alternative for

water supply, because of the shortage and limitations of other con-

ventional water resources. It offers an ideal solution in areas where

there is significant rainfall but an absence of any kind of conven-

tional, centralized water supply system, and also in areas where

there is a lack of good quality in the fresh surface water or ground-

water [3].

*) Dr. Deniz Dolgen and Dr. M. Necdet Alpaslan are the staffmembers of the Environmental Engineering Department of theDokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey, [email protected],[email protected]. Dr. Ahmet Baban is researcher at TUBI-TAK-MRC, Gebze, [email protected]

Historically, interest in the technology was re-stricted in terms of a wide application to rural ar-eas; however, more recently, even urban environ-ments equipped with piped water supply sys-

tems have started to adopt rain water cistern systems(RWCS) for the multi-sourcing of water.


Atypical rain water cistern system (RWCS) consistsof three basic elements: a collection (catchment) area, aconveyance system, and storage facilities (see fig. 1).The collection area in most cases is the roof of a house/or a building, and a field. The effective roof area andthe material used in constructing the roof influencethe efficiency of collection and the water quality. Anyroofing material is acceptable for collecting water fornon-potable uses. Water to be used for drinkingshould not be collected from roofs covered with as-phalt shingles, and lead flashing should not be used inthese systems.

A conveyance system usually consists of gutters orpipes that deliver rainwater falling on the rooftop tocisterns or other storage vessels. Both drainpipes androof surfaces should be constructed of chemically in-ert materials such as wood, plastic, aluminum, or fiber-glass, in order to avoid adverse effects on the qualityof the water. Sand, gravel or charcoal filters are some-times used to filter water before it enters the cisternbut they require frequent maintenance to prevent con-tamination.

The water ultimately is stored in a storage tank orcistern, which should also be constructed of an inertmaterial, e.g. reinforced concrete, fiberglass, stainlesssteel, etc. Storage tanks may be constructed as part ofthe building, or may be built as a separate unit locatedsome distance away from the building [2]. These maybe constructed surface or above-ground tanks (mostcommon for roof collection) and sub-surface or under-ground tanks (common for ground catchment sys-tems, see fig. 2). Cisterns are usually designed with cir-cular, rectangular and square plans with depths notmore than 2 to 3 m. They must be equipped with out-let-works and over flows for large tanks. Appropriateaccess to the cistern must be provided.

The storage or cistern capacity is a crucial compo-nent of a RWCS. Low storage capacities limit theamount of harvested rainwater, so that the systemmay not be able to provide enough water in a low rain-fall period. Increased storage capacities increase con-struction and operating costs and may make the tech-nology economically unfeasible, unless it is subsi-dized by the government. Thus, the role of govern-ments in this field can be expanded, including offeringfunds to users in order to encourage them to utilize cis-terns and to introduce standards and specifications(codes) for the construction, operation and mainte-nance of this technology, in order to prevent any non-conformity that might endanger public health.

11

� AN ANCIENT CISTERN IN TURKEY

USE OF RAINWATER CISTERN SYSTEMS – RWCS as an Alternative for Freshwater Augmentation DENIZ DOLGEN, AHMENT BABAN and M.NECDET ALPASLAN


DETERMINATION OF CISTERN CAPACITYWhen it comes to determining the cistern capacity,

there is no exact formula to plug into. Once factorssuch as the water consumption, rainfall characteris-tics, runoff collection area, and the availability of othersources of water are determined, then the capacity canbe figured out. There are rules of thumb approaches incapacity determination and also some guidelines andstatistical methods. The statistical approach proposedand referred to in paper [1] is formulated by the fre-quency analysis of annual precipitation data. In thiscase, cumulative frequencies of annual rainfall arecomputed to estimate the probability distribution ofprecipitation. Furthermore, both the inputs (precipita-tion that is collected from a certain area) and the out-put (water demand) are considered as total values sothat the cistern volume is determined by equating theinputs and the outputs. Such an approach is valid onlywhen periods of rainfall do not coincide with periodsof water use. Some designers suggest that cisternsshould be designed at maximum sizes (maximizationapproach) considering that small increases in dimen-sions lead to significant increases in capacity. This ap-proach may be valid for small-scale privately-owneddwellings, however, if a system of cisterns is to beplanned with a broader scope of application, such asizing procedure may lead to inefficient investments.Under these conditions, the design procedure, as pro-posed in this paper, may prove to be much more effec-tive within a longer time perspective. However, all ofthe factors need to be traded-off with the cost.

OVERALL CHARACTERISTICS OF RWCSA SWOT analysis is applied in order to delineate

the overall characteristics of RWCS. The main conclu-sions are grouped in two parts as a) Strengths andWeaknesses and b) Opportunities and Threats (see ta-ble 1).

12

Fig. 1:

PRINCIPLECOMPONENTS

OF A RWCS

Sourc

e:G

EP

Fig. 2:

UNDERGROUNDAND ABOVE-

GROUNDCISTERNS

Strengths

� RWCS provides a source of water.� It provides an essential reserve in times of emer-

gency and/or breakdown of public water supplysystems.

� The technology is flexible.� The physical and chemical properties of rainwa-

ter may be superior to those of groundwater orsurface waters that may have been subjected topollution.

� The running costs are low.� Construction, operation, and maintenance are

not labor-intensive.� It is owner operated and managed.� It is a sustainable water source that is renewed

every year naturally.

Weaknesses

� Seasonal variation of rainfall.� Low storage capacities may limit rainwater har-

vesting.� It may not be able to provide water in a low rain-

fall period.� Cisterns and storage tanks can be unsafe for

small children.� Possible contamination of water.� The technology is only effective if rainfall rates

are relatively high.� Trapping of mosquitoes, pests, etc.� The water may not be fresh after prolonged stor-

age periods.

Opportunities

� Development of new materials to lower thecosts.

� Natural conditions favor RWCS in small resi-dential communities, isolated highlands andmountain foothills.

� Implementation of pilot projects.� Increasing need for a supplemental water source

for urban communities.� Growing water supply deficits.� Lack of sufficient quantity of water resources.

Threats

� The tendency of governments towards the im-plementation of conventional water supply sys-tems.

� Lack of standards and specifications (codes) forthe construction, operation and maintenance ofthe technology.

� Risk of reduction of revenues from public utili-ties.

� Lack of proper knowledge of RWCS.� Contamination of rain water from air pollution.

Table 1:

SWOT ANALYSIS ON RWCS



According to the SWOT analysis results, the appli-cation of an appropriate rainwater harvesting technol-ogy can make possible the utilization of rainwater as avaluable and, in many cases, needed water resource.However, the success of rainfall harvesting dependson the rainfall characteristics (seasonal variation, fre-quency intensity, etc); therefore, cisterns may be inter-preted as an unreliable water supply instrument, par-ticularly for periods of dry weather or prolongeddroughts.

RWCS PROJECT AT TUBITAK-MRC

Within the training and demonstration activities inthe context of the Zer0-M project, rainwater harvest-ing is practiced. For that purpose a building with fourfloors will be used in the MRC premises where, ap-proximately 20 people are residing. The intended useof the collected rainwater, i.e. toilet flushing/drinkingwater is subject to the results of water quality analysis.The annual rainfall is taken from the Gebze Meteorol-ogy Station as 835 mm. Then, the volume of the rainwa-ter reservoir, i.e. cistern is determined as 15 m3 takingthe roof area as 350 m2 and the roof factor as 0.9. Thisfigure represents a rough approximation of 50% - 70%of the water needed for toilet flushing purposes, de-pending on the climatic conditions.

To conclude, the use of rainwater is very effective inlessening the demand on the public water supply sys-tem. The rainwater collected can augment other watersources when they become scarce. If the long forgot-

ten cistern applications can be put back into wide-spread use, then future investigations of RWCS willlead to better designs and operational features with re-duced unit costs.

REFERENCES

[1] Alpaslan, N., Harmancioglu, N.B. and Singh, V.P.(1992) Cisterns as a water supply alternative forsparse establishments. Hydrology Journal of Indian

Association of Hydrology, 15 (1-2), 1-13.[2] French, R. (1988) Cisterns for water conservation

and flood control. Journal of Water Resources

Planning and Management, ASCE, 114 (5), 565-577.[3] Waller, D.H. (1989) Rain water an alternative

source in developing and developed countries. Wa-

ter International, IWRA, 14 (1), 27-36.

13

Fig. 3:

SCHEMATICREPRESENTATIONOF THE RWCS OFTHE TUBITAK-MRC

During the preparation of the Johannesburg earth Summit (February2002), a group of distinguished water scientists sent a letter to the Divi-sion for Sustainable Development, United Nations entitled “A sustainableSanitation is a key to Sustainable Development”. The letter states amongothers that sustainable sanitation is:� Designed for low water consumption (demand side management)

and aims for full reuse of water and fertilisers.� Often decentralised and is capable to provide high performance at

low costs – user involvement and proper maintenance is a key to suc-cess.These statements represent one of the majors objectives of the two pro-

jects MEDAWARE and ZER0-M this is why the conference aims at stimu-lating the interest of people in fresh water saving, considering treatedwastewater as part of the community’s water budget and in adopting ap-proaches that preserve the public health and the environment.

Also and in the context of increasing water resources depletion, theConference will focus on wastewater treatment technologies (includinginnovative ones) and on wastewater reuse in large urban and in small ru-ral contexts or tourism facilities located in remote areas practices.

The conference aims at supporting the competent authorities and allactors involved in the specific field by providing them new knowledge onvarious technologies, methods and tools for the promotion of best. It rep-resents an opportunity to promote these new approaches among Govern-ment Agencies and Municipalities. Successful case studies and salient re-

sults from ongoing sustainable water projects shall be presented and dis-cussed. The conference shall also provide an opportunity to bring togetherscientists, engineers and professionals from government departments, pri-vate institutions, consultants, research, education and training institutions.

Water systems (water saving, suitable quality versus usage, Greywater/blackwater segregation, wastewater treatment, reuse and recycling) forsmall rural communities, remote tourist facilities, and large urban adminis-trative or leisure units.� Household-centred water management� Rainwater harvesting for domestic use� Industrial water management and cleaner production� Pre-treatment of industrial wastewater and reuse� Integration of wastewater reuse in the overall water resources manage-

ment� Best technologies/systems for sustainable treatment of urban

wastewater in the Mediterranean area� Methodologies for the control and monitoring of urban wastewater

treatment plant� Risk assessment (human health / environment)� Approaches for the assessment and valuation of safe wastewater agri-

cultural reuse� Relevant policies and socioeconomic instruments� Guidelines and quality standards for reclaimed water� Case studies



USE OF RAPIDINFILTRATIONTECHNIQUE FORAQUIFER RECHARGEWITH TREATEDWASTEWATERDESIGN OF SOUHIL WADI (NABEUL-TUNISIA)PILOT PLANT

By HAMADI KALLALI, MITSUO YOSHIDA, SALAH JELLALI,ABDENNACEUR HASSEN and NACEUR JEDIDI*

The intensive tourist activities, the overexploitation of coastal aqui-

fers and the demographic increase, are numerous factors which in-

duce pronounced saline intrusion in coastal aquifers. An integrated

water management including wastewater reuse became a necessity

to assure sustainable development. The main challenge is to reach

the zero discharge of the wastewater treated in order to provide the

farmers with sufficient water and avoid coastal water pollution. In

Tunisia, the artificial recharge of groundwater with treated

wastewater is gaining wide acceptance as a simple and low cost tech-

nique to replenish over-drafted aquifers.

*) Hamadi Kallali is Chief Engineer of Rural Engineering, waters andForests and Assistant researcher at Wastewater Treatment and Recyc-ling Laboratory (LTREU) of Tunisian National Institute for Scientificand Technical Research (INRST), Hammam-Lif, Tunisia,[email protected] JELLALI, Abdennaceur HASSEN and Naceur JEDIDI are re-searchers at Laboratoire Traitement & Recyclage des Eaux Usées,Institut National de Recherche Scientifique et Technique B.P.95,Hammam-Lif, TUNISIA.Mitsuo YOSHIDA is researcher at the Institute for International Coop-eration, JICA, JAPAN.

GEOLOGIC DESCRIPTION OF BOREHOLECORES

The site of the borehole is located at a pilot plant fortreated wastewater infiltration for aquifer recharge, atthe western bank of the Souhil Wadi, the north-west-ern part of Nabeul City, Tunisia. The exact position isidentified by a Global Positioning System (GPS) as lati-tude N36°27’22”, longitude E10°42’02”. A 30-m-deepborehole (∅ 10 cm) was inserted at the site using a ro-tary drilling machine. Approximately 94% of drilledborehole cores have been retrieved. The results of theborehole core observation are illustrated as a geologiccolumnar section in fig. 1. According to the observa-tion, the subsurface strata can be divided into two geo-logic units; the upper unconsolidated sand-gravel lay-ers (“Upper Unit”) and the lower consolidated silt-clay beds (“Lower Unit”). The Upper Unit is com-posed of unconsolidated coarse sediments such assand, coarse sand, and gravel layers, where six up-ward-fining sequences are observed. The Upper Unitis most probably correlated with Late Quaternary. TheLower Unit is constituted by well-consolidated silt toclay sediments that yield fossil mollusca. Probablythey are Tertiary marine strata [1]. The discrepancy oflithologic facies and estimated age suggests that theUpper Unit shows a non-conformity with the LowerUnit. The water table was measured around 10 m indepth, within the lower part of the Upper Unit. Uncon-solidated sand and gravel layers in the Upper Unit arethe porous media for groundwater circulation, andconsolidated silt and clay beds in the Lower Unit playthe role of a hydrogeological basement.

PERMEABILITY

In order to measure the permeability of thesubsurface sediments, we collected eight non-dis-turbed samples (labelled from P1 to P8) from the bore-hole cores.

MEASUREMENT METHODS

We employed two different methods for the indoorpermeability test; the Constant Level (CL) and the Vari-able Level (VL) methods.

14

Sample Method Temp. t1 Q1

°C cm3

P1 CL 27 20”41 8

P2 CL 27 20”59 12

P3 VL 26 9’11”83 -

P4 VL 26 7’20”75 -

P5 VL 26 3’2”51 -

P6 CL 26 20”86 4

P7 VL 26 6h56’59” -

P8 VL 26 7h10’41” -

Table 1: RESULTS OF PERMEABILITY MEASUREMENTS

USE OF RAPID INFILTRATION TECHNIQUE FOR AQUIFER RECHARGE WITH TREATED WASTEWATER H. KALLALI et al.


RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results of the indoor permeability test are sum-marized in table 1. The permeability in saturated statevaries from 10-4 to 10-5 m/sec for sand and gravel in theUpper Unit with less than 10-9 m/sec for silt and clay inthe Lower Unit.

The results are in concordance of further investiga-tions in the region, indeed, Rekaya, 1986 estimatedthat the vadose zone varies from the river bed to the ba-sin site from 10 to 13 m, the aquifer thickness 2 to 3 mand the aquifer permeability estimation based ongranulometry 10-4 to 10-5 m/sec [2].

CONCEPTION AND DESIGN OF THEINFILTRATION FACILITY:DETERMINATION OF THE ANNUAL LOAD

Determining the design annual hydraulic loadingrate is one of the most critical aspects of rapidinfiltraion (RI) system design. The hydraulic loadingrate is based directly on the field and laboratory test re-sults for infiltration and permeability. If the site investi-gation reveals a specific layer that will restrict flow,the design is based on the permeability of that layer re-gardless of its thickness [3]. In our case the lowestvalue for the vadose zone and the aquifer reservoirpermeabilities, is 5.4 × 10-5 m/sec (according to CLmethod). This value (19.4 cm/h) defines the amount ofclean water that can move through a unit cross-sectionin the soil, at unit gradient and under saturated condi-tions. Thus, the clean water rate, Lcw is given by:

Lcw = (19.4 cm/h)(24 h/d)(365 d/yr)(1 m2) / (100 cm/m) =1699.4 m3/yr

The loading can also be expressed in terms of thedepth of water on a unit area because of the dimen-sions involved, so:

Lcw = (1699.4 m3/yr) / 1 m2 = 1699.4 m/yr

However, most of the commonly used test proce-dures require the adjustments (safety factors) consider-ing that wastewater will be used for infiltration. Thisfactor is estimated by [3] upon full scale systemswhich are successfully operated. For Laboratory per-meability measurements, this factor is 4 to 10% of re-

stricting soil layer permeability. Thus, annual waste-water loading, Lww, is between :

Lww = (0.04)(clean water rate, Lcw) =(0.04)(1699.4) = 68 m/yr

and Lww = (0.1)(clean water rate, Lcw) =(0.1)(1699.4) =170 m/yr

The determination of the annual loading rate is ineffect a definition of the capacity of the site to transmitwastewater if applied at some undefined, but regular

15

t2 Q2 t3 Q3 K15°C

cm3 cm3 m/sec

20”38 8 20”39 8 1.2 × 10-4

20”63 12 20”66 12 1.8 × 10-4

9’12”15 - 9’12”71 - 7.5 × 10-5

7’18”50 - 7’28”57 - 6.9 × 10-5

3’1”39 - 3’2”03 - 5.6 × 10-5

20”65 3.5 20”45 3.5 5.4 × 10-5

- - - - 1.4 × 10-9

- - - - 2.5 × 10-9

························

························

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· · · · · · · · · · · ·

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·······················

·······················

· · · · · · · · · · ·

Fig. 1:

GEOLOGICCOLUMNAR SECTIONOF THE SITE ANDSAMPLED HORIZONSFOR PERMEABILITYTESTS

USE OF RAPID INFILTRATION TECHNIQUE FOR AQUIFER RECHARGE WITH TREATED WASTEWATER KALLALI et al.


schedule throughout the year. But in the case of theWadi Souhil system, operation is limited to the winterbecause there is no demand for the irrigation area. Forthat, we have to reduce the annual loading proportion-ally to account for the non-operating period. Systemoperation is planned for the winter period (Novem-ber-March), so six months per year and the annualwastewater loading becomes between:

Lww = (6/12)(68 m/yr) = 34 m/yr

and Lww = (6/12)(170 m/yr) = 85 m/yr

DETERMINATION OF THE WET/DRYCYCLES AND APPLICATION RATE

In order to maximize the infiltration in winter, a cy-cle of three days of dosing (see fig. 2) for 10 days of rest-ing (fig. 3) are recommended by [3]. We have 14 cyclesin six months and a wastewater load by cycle of 1.7 m/cycle. The daily load, calculated on the basis of threedays of dosing, is determined as follows:

LD = 1.7 m/cycle/3days = 0.57 m/j= 57 cm/j

DETERMINATION OF LAND REQUIREMENT

Land required for daily flow rate infiltration:

A= C Q (365 days/year) / LwwA= Land area, haC = conversion factor = 10-4 ha/m2

Q = mean flow rate, m3/dLww = annual loading rate m/a

In this caseA= C Q (181 d / 6 months) / Lww

The flow rate is 260 m3/d

A=10-4.260.(181)/24 = 0,1961 ha = 1961 m2

MINIMUM NUMBER OF BASINS REQUIRED

On the basis of the expertise acquired after the oper-ation of a large number of RI facilities in the USA, theUSEPA recommends a minimum number of basins ac-cording to the wet/dry cycle. In our case, the numbercorresponding to 3:10 is 5.

DEVELOPMENT OF A METHODOF CALCULATION

At equilibrium, we have

N

D

N

Rd r= and N N Nd r= −

With N: Total number of basins, Nd: Number ofdosed basins for a given day, Nr: Number of restingbasins for a given day, D: Number of dosing days andR: number of resting days. Thus N could be written asfollows:

N 1D

RNr= +

⋅

Where Nr is determined by the denominator of theirreducible D/R quotient. In our case, the wet/dry cy-cle is 3:10, the number of resting basins for a given daywill be 10 because 3:10 is irreducible and the total num-ber of basins N = (1 + 3/10) × 10 = 13 basins. The com-parison of results between the two methods is givenby fig. 4.

We notice that:� USEPA recommendations meet the calculated

number mostly for one or two days dosing.� The USEPA recommends only three basins when

the real number needed is very high� When the quotient is not reducible, the number in-

creases tremendously and in order to reduce signif-icantly the required basins number, we have tochoose a number of resting days n times of thenumber of dosing days (e.g. 9:16 gives 25 while 8:16gives 3).

BASIN AREA CALCULATION

As A is the land area required to absorb the dailyflow rate and Nd the number of dosed basins, the basinarea required is: SB = A/Nd. For our case, SB = 1961/3 =654 m2. But if we want squared basins, we will take26 ×26 = 676 m2.

16

Fig. 2:

DOSINGPERIOD

Fig. 3:

RESTINGPERIOD



TOTAL LAND AREA REQUIREMENT

The infiltration area required is given by: ST = N.SB.For our case, ST = 13 × 676 = 8788 m2. Additional landmay be needed for buffer zones, access roads, storageor flow equalization (when provided), and future ex-pansion. Buffer zones can be used to screen RI sitesfrom public view. Pre-application treatment facilities,access roads, and storage or flow equalization may beincluded in the buffer area. Access roads must be pro-vided so that equipment and labour can reach the infil-tration basins. Maintenance equipment must be ableto enter each basin (for scarification or surface mainte-nance).

CONCLUSION

With the implementation of the rapid infiltrationtechnique in the region of Cap Bon (Tunisia), we aremoving towards closed loop wastewater managementwith direct irrigation with treated wastewater in theperiod of plant needs (summer time) and wastewaterstoring in the aquifer in the winter period.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is one of the outcomes of the project con-tracted by INRST and Tunisian Ministry of Researchand Competences development (2002 - 2006) andINRST-JICA technical cooperation programme 2000 -2002.

REFERENCES

[1] Bensalem, H. and Taamallah, N. (1995). Notice Ex-plicative de la Carte Géologique de la Tunisie à 1/500.000

e, Nabeul-Hammamet Feuille No.30 & 37.

Direction du Service Géologique, Office Nationaldes Mines, Ministère de l’Industrie, RépubliqueTunisienne, 32p.

[2] Rekaya, M. (1986). Expérimentation pilote de re-charge artificielle à partir des eaux usées traitées.Cas de la nappe de l’Oued Souhil (Nabeul).Séminaire maghrébin sur la réutilisation des eauxusées après traitement en agriculture. Tunis, 24th-26th April 1986.

[3] US Environmental Protection Agency (1981). Pro-cess design Manual for Land Treatment of Munici-pal Wastewater. EPA625/1-81-013.

17

Fig. 4: COMPARISON BETWEEN RECOMMENDED AND CALCULATED NUMBERS OF BASINS



GREYWATER TREAT-MENT AND USE FORPOVERTY REDUCTIONIN RURAL AREASEXCHANGE OF KNOW-HOW BETWEENWATER SCARCE COUNTRIES

By SHIHAB NAJIB AL-BEIRUTI*

Water scarcity in dry areas is a very critical issue for sustainable de-

velopment. Efficient integrated water resources management

(IWRM) methods require the implementation of all the possible al-

ternatives for water supply and demand management methods.

*) Shihab Najib Al-Beiruti is researcher at Head of Services and Pro-grams Section, The Inter-Islamic Network on Water Resources Devel-opment and Management (INWRDAM), Amman, Jordan,[email protected]

Water supply in Jordan is limited and the lack ofnew water resources and the competition be-tween the different water uses like domestic, in-dustrial and agricultural, is expected to in-

crease in the near future. Applied research conductedby the Inter-Islamic Network on Water Resources De-velopment and Management (INWRDAM) over thelast five years on decentralized wastewater treatmentand use focused on a holistic approach for the develop-ment of “state of the art” modular on-site low-costgreywater treatment and use units at the householdlevel and implementing capacity building of the localperi-urban communities to enable them to practice sus-tainable Urban Agriculture (UA) by saving fresh wa-ter and safe guarding the environment. The outcometo date of this research has resulted in the optimiza-tion of the modular low-cost units for greywater treat-ment, the use of techniques for drip irrigation and theselection of crops for home gardens.

These findings were the results of three projects.One entitled “Post Project Evaluation of PermacultureTechniques” and a second one entitled “GreywaterTreatment and Reuse in Home Gardens”. Both pro-jects were conducted in the town of Ein Al-Baida,Tafila Governorate, in the South of Jordan and werefunded by research grants from the International De-velopment Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada (IDRC).A third project entitled “Community Involvement inReuse of Greywater to Improve Agriculture Output”was financed by the Jordanian Ministry of Planningand International Cooperation of Jordan (MOPIC)and involved benefiting more than 800 households in90 peri-urban sites throughout Jordan with greywatertreatment units and drip irrigation systems.INWRDAM also succeeded in setting up similar grey-water activities in other Islamic countries such as Leba-non where the adoption of greywater in a cluster of sixtowns in Lebanon is being implemented. The resultsof this research were well accepted by the local com-munity and by the government of Jordan. More pro-jects addressing greywater use are now being imple-mented in Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon with the em-phasis on conserving fresh water, the improvement ofsanitation and generating extra income for the poor inperi-urban areas and constituted sustainable urban ag-riculture practices. A recent evaluation of INWRDAM’greywater projects by an external evaluator have indi-cated that: “INWRDAM has contributed to raising theprofile of greywater use both in Jordan and in otherparts of the world”.

The main aim of this paper is to concentrate on themethods and results of INWRDAM’ greywater treat-ment and to use this experience in order to make it eas-ily affordable to more countries in order to contributeto the reduction of poverty in rural areas.

GREYWATER USE

A functional and sustainable wastewater manage-ment scheme begins at the household level and islargely dependant on the “software” or the human

18

GREYWATER TREATMENT AND USE FOR POVERTY REDUCTION IN RURAL AREAS SHIHAB NAJIB AL-BEIRUTI


component. Only when the perception of need andperhaps the anticipation of a wastewater use systemhas been internalized at the neighbourhood/userlevel, will planning and implementation be success-fully executed.

Greywater use represents the largest potentialsource of water saving in domestic uses. The use of do-mestic greywater for landscape irrigation makes a sig-nificant contribution towards the reduction of potablewater use. In Arizona, for example, it is documentedthat an average household can generate about 135,000to 180,000 liters of greywater per year [1]. This illus-trates the immense potential amounts of water thatcan be used, especially in arid regions like the MiddleEast and North Africa. Domestic greywater use offersan attractive option in arid and semi arid regions dueto severe water scarcity, rainfall fluctuations, and therise in water pollution. To ensure sustainable watermanagement, it is crucial to move towards the goal ofefficient and appropriate water use. Greywater usecontributes to promoting the preservation of high-quality fresh water as well as reducing pollutants inthe environment. Meeting different needs with the ap-propriate quality of water may prove to be economi-cally beneficial and at the same time reduce the needfor new water supplies at a higher marginal cost.

DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY

On-site greywater treatment methods developedby INWRDAM [2] were designed with the objective toachieve low costs, an ease of construction, low opera-tion and maintenance costs and to yield greywater of aquality suitable at least for restricted irrigation.

THE 4-BARREL SYSTEM

This system is an improvement on the two barrelkit. Two tanks each with 220 liter capacity and filledwith gravel media that act as anaerobic filters are in-serted between the pre-treatment tank and final stor-age tanks. The four barrels are lined up next to theother and interconnected with 50 mm PVC pipes.

Once solids and floating material settle in the firstbarrel, the relatively clear water from the first barrelenters into the bottom of the second barrel. Next thewater from the top of the second barrel enters into thebottom of the third barrel. This water passes throughthe gravel lumps (2-3 cm size graded gravel) and fromthe top of the third barrel it is taken into the fourth. An-aerobic treatment is accomplished in the two middlebarrels. Anaerobic bacteria get established on thestone surface so that when the greywater passesthrough the stones, the bacteria works on breakingdown components of the organic material found in thegreywater. The last barrel acts as a storage tank fortreated greywater. As soon as this barrel is filled, afloating device switches on a small water pump whichthen delivers the water through the drip irrigation net-work. For an average family home, 20-30 trees (olives,

fruit etc) that are planted in the domestic garden canbe irrigated.

With the resident time of one to two days in the 4-barrel treatment kit the influent greywater undergoesa treatment level equivalent to between primary andsecondary treatment and meets the World Health Or-ganization’s guidelines for restricted irrigation. Fig. 1shows an installed 4-barrel system.

THE CONFINED TRENCH SYSTEM

Two plastic barrels and a dug trench filled withgravel media constitute the confined trench system.The first barrel acts as a grease, oil and solids separa-tor and thus acts as a pre-treatment or primary treat-ment chamber, where the solid matter from the influ-ent greywater settles and the floating components,such as grease and soap foam floats and can be re-moved regularly. A trench is dug close to the first bar-rel with dimensions of approximately three meterlong, one meter wide and one meter deep and is linedwith an impermeable polyethylene sheet with a thick-

19

Fig. 1:

INSTALLED4-BARRELGREYWATERTREATMENTSYSTEM

Fig. 2:

INSTALLED CONFINEDTRENCH GREYWATERTREATMENT SYSTEM



ness of 400 - 500 µm. The trench is then filled with 2 - 3cm size graded gravel. Pre-treated wastewater fromthe first barrel enters the bottom part of the trenchfrom one side and follows slowly to the other end. Thesides of the side trench are plastered with a mud layerso that the liner sheet is not punctured by sharpstones. A 120 liter capacity plastic barrel is perforatedand burred in the gravel at the exit of the trench so thattreated wastewater follows throughout the trench andupwards to fill this barrel. As soon as this barrel isfilled, a floating device switches on a small waterpump which then delivers the water through the dripirrigation network.

The residence time of greywater in the trench is twoto three days in anaerobic conditions. The confinedtrench unit can serve more than one nearby familysharing the same garden plot and it also can delivermore water quantity between pumping cycles. Fig. 2shows an installed confined trench system.


The project resulted in many direct and indirectbenefits to the community and the environment.Women in the community benefited most from thisproject through training workshops, dialogue andlearning by doing and acquired new skills to build aproductive garden and management skills. Themonthly domestic water consumption decreased byabout 30% to all greywater users and the income of thepoor increased on average by US$ 50 to US$ 150 permonth and many beneficiaries had no longer to pay alarge portion of their monthly income to regularlyempty their septic tanks. Many families started to

copy and imitate the practice of their neighbours withrespect to greywater use.

The following recommendations can be made re-garding the appropriateness of greywater use technol-ogies:� The scheme or technology should be a felt priority

in public or environmental health, and either cen-tralized or de-centralized technologies should beconsidered;

� The technology should be low-cost and require lowenergy input and mechanization, which reducesthe risk of malfunction;

� The technology should be simple to operate, be lo-cal labor intensive, maintained by the community,not relying on expensive chemical inputs such aschlorine or ozone to meet quality guidelines;

� The treatment should be capable of beingincrementally upgraded as the user demand orquality standards and treatment guidelines in-crease.

REFERENCES

[1] http://www.watercasa.org/pub/graywater-guide-lines.html

[2] Bino, J. Murad and Al-Beiruti, S. Greywater Treat-ment And Reuse Project, Tafila, Jordan (2000 - 2003).Conducted by the Inter-Islamic Network on WaterResources Development and Management with fi-nancial support from the International Develop-ment Research Centre (IDRC).

20

Fig. 3:

CONFINEDTRENCHSYSTEM



ANAEROBIC TREAT-MENT OF INDUSTRIALWASTEWATERSBy ILDA DEGIRMENTAS and NURAN DEVECI

In this study, the anaerobic treatment of high-strength antibiotic

production wastewater was attempted. Anaerobic treatability was

investigated using synthetic solutions and original wastewater of

which the initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) was determined.

The initial COD of solutions was increased from 3000 to 43000 mg

O2/L in an anaerobic bioreactor. The bioreactor pH was maintained

at 6.5 - 7.5. The temperature was kept constant at 37 1°C.

*) Dr. Ilda Degirmentas is researcher in the Chemical EngineeringDepartment of Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey,[email protected]

Raw materials and original wastewater containingpenicillin antibiotics were obtained from theFako Pharmaceutical Factory (Fako) in Istanbul,Turkey. The anaerobic sludge used for the treat-

ment was obtained from Pakmaya Baker’s Yeast Pro-ducing Factory (Pakmaya) in Izmit, Turkey and Fako.According to the results of experimental data, the max-imum biodegradation efficiency of the anaerobic treat-ment obtained in approximately 60 days was 97 %.

INTRODUCTION

Anaerobic digestion is a multistage biochemicalprocess that can stabilize many different types of or-ganic material [1, 2]. It has been proven that anaerobicwastewater treatment is a suitable technology for thetreatment of concentrated wastewater. Research intothe treatment of antibiotic production wastewatershas not been reported in the literature. So our researchwill clarify these points.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Raw materials and original antibiotic wastewaterwere obtained from the Fako Medicine Producing Fac-tory at Istanbul, Turkey. The characteristics of thehigh-strength process effluents from the Fako antibi-otic production factory (Fako) are presented in table 1.

Wastewater was stored at 4°C to avoid biodegrada-tion and treated as soon as possible. Anaerobic sludgewas obtained from Pakmaya Baker’s Yeast ProducingFactory (Pakmaya) at Izmit, Turkey and Fako.

Anaerobic treatability was investigated using syn-thetic solutions and original wastewater, of which theinitial chemical oxygen demand (COD) was determinedat the beginning of the experiments. The anaerobicbiodegradation was investigated in a laboratory-scalebioreactor (see fig. 1a and 1b) of two liters in volume.

The stirred reactor was suitable for nutrient addi-tion, pH and temperature control. The bioreactor con-tents (antibiotic wastewater) were maintained at pH6.5 - 7.5. The temperature was kept constant at 37 ±1°C,and a mixing speed of 150 rpm.

In the experimental studies, the wastewater sam-ples were prepared by diluting the original waste-water and preparing synthetic solutions to obtain vari-

21

Foto

:C

hri

stia

nP

latz

er

Parameter Range

COD (mg O2/L) 10000 - 43000

pH 7.75 - 10.62

TS (mg/L) 16800 - 23800

VTS (mg/L) 6210 - 8240

SS (mg/L) 120 - 580

VSS (mg/L) 100 - 560

Table 1:

CHARACTERISTICS OFHIGH-STRENGTHPROCESS EFFLUENTSFROM THE FAKOMEDICINE PRO-DUCING FACTORY,ISTANBUL-TURKEY

ANAEROBIC TREATMENT OF INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATERS ILDA DEGIRMENTAS and NURAN DEVECI


ous COD values between 3000 and 43000 mg O2/L.During the experiments, COD, volatile fatty acids(VFA), total solids (TS), suspended solids (SS), dis-solved solids (DS), volatile total solids (VTS), and vola-tile suspended solids (VSS) were determined accord-ing to standard methods [3]. pH control was carriedout in the samples taken at start-up, shut-down and pe-riodically during the treatment.


In this study, anaerobic treatability was investi-gated for the antibiotic production wastewater (ofCOD values ranging between 3000 - 43000 mg O2/L).The maximum biodegradation efficiency of the anaero-bic treatment obtained in approximately 60 days was97%. In all the anaerobic degradations, except for theblank experiment with distilled water, there was an in-ert COD. This inert COD had values of 725 - 3250 mgO2/L. One of the reasons for the low efficiency in thetreatment of low-strength antibiotic productionwastewater (COD = 3000 - 10000 mg O2/L) was this in-ert COD. However, this inert COD did not affect the ef-ficiency of the anaerobic treatment of the high-strength antibiotic production wastewater because ofits relatively small magnitude.

Regarding the results of this study using the first-or-der kinetic equation (1) and second-order kinetic equa-tion (2) the rate constants of the anaerobic biodegra-dation reactions k1, k2 and k3 were determined (seetable 4). Because of the conformity of the anaerobicdegradation of medium strength (COD = 10000 –20000 mg O2/L) antibiotic production wastewater tothe first-order kinetic, reaction rate constants k1, k2 andk3 (given in italics) were calculated according to the lat-ter equation presented in the literature [4]. And alsothe anaerobic treatment kinetics of high strength(COD >25000 mg O2/L) antibiotic production waste-water fits the second-order biodegradation model, re-action rate constants were calculated according to thesecond-order kinetic equation [5].

The calculated rate constants according to the me-dium strength (COD = 10000 - 20000 mg O2/L) antibi-otic production wastewater are given in table 2. Thecalculated rate constants according to the equation (2)are given in table 3.

CONCLUSION

According to the model equation that follows sec-ond-order kinetics, the rate constants, k1, k2 and k3, ofthe anaerobic biodegradation reactions were deter-mined. As a result of this study, k1, the rate constantfor the hydrolysis step, was found to be smaller thanthe k2 and k3 values. For this reason, it can be con-cluded that hydrolysis is the rate-limiting step in theanaerobic treatment reactions of antibiotic productionwastewater.

According to the results of this study, the anaerobicbiodegradation of medium strength (10000 ≤ COD≤ 20000 mg O2/L) antibiotic production wastewater

fits the first-order kinetics, and the anaerobic biodegra-dation of the high strength (COD > 25000 mg O2/L)wastewater fits the second-order kinetics.

22

Fig. 1b:

EXPERIMENTALAPPARATUS

Fig. 1a:

SCHEME OFEXPERIMENTALAPPARATUS

COD (mg O2/L) 10000 - 20000

k1·103 (L/mg·h) 4.271 - 19.920

k2·103 (L/mg·h) 1.373 - 3.119

k3·101 (L/mg·h) 6.550 - 25.190

Table 2: FIRST-ORDER RATE CONSTANTS k1, k

2and k

3*

*) The rate constants k1, k2, and k3 were calculated for the givenCOD interval.

COD (mg O2/L) 31500 - 43000

k1·107 (L/mg·h) 0.4459 - 0.9207

k2·104 (L/mg·h) 0.0342 - 0.0397

k3·10-2 (L/mg·h) 605.800 - 719.800

Table 3: SECOND-ORDER RATE CONSTANTS k1, k2 and k3**) The rate constants k1, k2, and k3 were calculated for the

given COD interval.



REFERENCES

[1] Pavlostathis, S.G. and Giraldo, G.E., (1991). Kinet-ics of anaerobic treatment, Water Science and Tech-nology, 24 (8), 59-35.

[2] Gray, N. F., (1989), Biology of Wastewater Treatment,Oxford Science Publications, London.

[3] APHA, AWWA, WPCF (1989), Standard Methods

For The Examination Of Water And Wastewater,American Public Health Assoc., Washington.

[4] Deveci, N. and Çiftçi, G., (2001). A mathematicalmodel for the anaerobic treatment of Baker’s yeasteffluents, Waste Management, 21, 99-103.

[5] Degirmentas, I., Deveci, N., (2004). Anaerobic treat-ment of antibiotic production wastewater and ki-netic evaluations, Journal of Biochemistry, 136,177-182.

23

The first-order kinetic equation:

S S e k Se e

k kk k S

kT A

k tA

k t k t

A= ⋅ + −−

+−− −

0 0 01

2 1

1

1 2

1 2

(2 3 1 3 1 2

1 2 2

1 2 3− ⋅ − − ⋅ + − ⋅− −

− − −k e k k e k k e

k k k

k t k t k t) ( ) ( )

( )( k k k3 1 2)( )−

(1)

The second-order kinetic equation:

SS

k S t

k S

2k + 2tk k S+

1

2k (1 +T

A0

1 A0

1 A0

2 1 2 A0 2

=+

+1

( {tk S

- k 4k S1 A0

1 2 A0)

k1+ +

2

1

k 4k S

1 tk S k S k k 4k S

1 2 A0

1 A0k 4k k

1 A0 1 1 2 A01 2 1

+

++ + +− +( ) (/ )

})

-k S k k 4k S1 A0 1 1 2 A0+ +

+

k S

2k + 2tk k S+

k (k + 4k k + 4k k )S

2 k + 4k k1 A0

3 1 3 A0

1 12

1 2 2 3 A02

1 2 3 1 A0(1 + tk S )+

( )( )k 4k k 2k k S k + 4k k (k + 4k k + 4k k )S (12

1 2 2 3 A0 1 2 1 12

1 2 2 3 A02+ + + − 1 (k + 4k ) k (1 + tk S ))

2(k + 4k )k (1 + tk S )

1 22

32

1 A0

1 2 3 1 A0

+

(2)

Table 4: FIRST ORDER AND SECOND ORDER KINETIC EQUATIONS



POLLUTIONPREVENTION ININDUSTRIAL PLANTS:A GENERAL VIEW*By NIHAL BEKTAS**

Pollution prevention means eliminating or reducing at source the

use, generation or release of toxic chemicals, hazardous materials or

solid waste. This can be done through increased efficiency in the

use of raw materials, energy, water or other resources, or through the

protection of natural resources by conservation [1].

*) This work was previously presented at the 1st ZER0-M Conference onSustainable Water Management 15 - 16 March 2005 Istanbul, Turkey.**) Nihal Bektas is an Assistant Prof. in Environmental Engineering De-partment, Gebze Institute of Technology, Gebze, TURKEY,[email protected]

Source reduction can also be defined as any practicethat:

� Reduces the amount of any hazardous substance,pollutant or contaminant entering any wastestream or otherwise released into the environment(including fugitive emissions) prior to recycling,treatment or disposal.

� Reduces the hazards to public health and the envi-ronment associated with the release of such sub-stances, pollutants or contaminants.Waste prevention assessments aim at the system-

atic identification, evaluation and implementation ofwaste prevention opportunities. Furthermore, an as-sessment should initiate an on-going waste preven-tion programme catalysing the corporate effort in-volved in achieving environmental improvements inits operations. To achieve success, the assessment pro-cedure should be tailored to company characteristics,especially in small and medium-sized enterprises [1,2]. This paper describes what the pollution preventiontechniques and benefits are and how to use them in in-dustrial plants.

METHODSPOLLUTION PREVENTION TECHNIQUES

In the waste management hierarchy, source reduc-tion and recycling are considered the most viable pol-lution prevention techniques, preceding treatmentand disposal [1, 2, 3, 4]. A detailed flow diagram isgiven in fig. 1.

Of the two approaches, source reduction is usuallypreferable to recycling from an environmental per-spective [1, 2, 3]. Source reduction and recycling arecomprised of a number of practises and approacheswhich are shown in fig. 2.

As can be seen from fig. 2, pollution prevention canbe accomplished through a variety of different tech-niques which involve changes in human behaviour,materials, equipment, technology or some combina-tions of these factors.

A systematic approach that can be used during theprocedure to find a recommended pollution preven-tion strategy, could be outlined as follows [1, 2, 3]:1. Define the problem: review plants, operation and

personnel2. Develop unit flow diagrams: Collect emissions and

waste inventory and identify causes3. Develop pollution prevention strategies: Investi-

gate process chemistry, design and maintenancechanges

4. Estimate costs

DEFINING THE PROBLEM AND GETTINGSTARTED

The first step in establishing a pollution preventionprogramme is the obtainment of management commit-ment. The data collected during the actual evolution isthen used to develop options to reduce the types andamounts of waste generated.

Once a policy statement has been written, ap-proved and distributed, the process of incorporating a

24

Sourc

e:w

ww

.em

wat

er.o

rgM

eda

Pro

jekt:

EM

Wat

er

POLLUTION PREVENTION IN INDUSTRIAL PLANTS: A GENERAL VIEW NIHAL BEKTAS


pollution prevention programme into daily company activitiesbegins [5]. The steps involved include designing a pollution pre-vention coordinator, developing a pollution prevention team, in-creasing employee awareness and involvement, establishing arecognition program, training employees, goal setting and devel-oping a written pollution prevention plan. To effectively imple-ment this plan, it is necessary to develop a complete understand-ing of the various unit processes and points in these processeswhere waste is being generated. The information assembled inthe process characterization and flow diagrams will be used tohelp identify pollution prevention opportunities. Once waste-streams have been identified and prioritized, the assessment ofspecific pollution prevention opportunities can begin. Once oneof these projects has been found technically feasible the eco-nomic analysis of this project should be examined. Once ap-proval is received and implementation has begun, the team mem-bers should closely monitor all pollution prevention activities tomake sure that any problems are resolved immediately. Thisprogramme should also be continuously evaluated and updatedto improve overall effectiveness.

BENEFITS OF POLLUTION PREVENTION

Waste is lost raw material, lost products, lost resources andlost profit. Generating significant amounts of waste is not sus-tainable for todays society. Waste minimization often makesgood economic and business sense. Source reduction and recy-cling, reuse, and reclaiming technologies have helped many com-panies reduce [1]:� The quantity and toxicity of hazardous and solid waste gener-

ation;� Raw material and product losses;� Raw material purchase costs;� Waste management recordkeeping and the paperwork burden;� Waste management costs;� Workplace accidents and worker exposure;� Compliance violations;� Environmental liability.

At the same time, waste minimization can improve:� Production efficiency;� Profits;� Good community relations;� Employee participation morale;� Product quality;� Overall environmental performance.

CONCLUSIONSThe basic elements of pollution prevention have been out-

lined. Many techniques and technologies exist to treat and re-cover waste once it has been generated. However, a pollution pre-vention programme should not rely on technology alone. Man-agement commitment, a careful waste minimization programmeand continuing emphasis on the reduction at source are prerequi-sites for success. Constant improvements must be made and newmethods of reducing waste sought.

REFERENCES[1] http://www.epa.gov[2] Liu, D.H.F. (1999) Pollution Prevention in Chemical Manufac-

turing, CRC Press Boca Raton, Florida, section 3.2.[3] Theodore, L., Duponts, R.R. and Reynolds, J. (1994) Pollution

Prevention: problems and solutions, Gordon ND Breach Sci-ence Publisher, 1-35p.

[4] Kiely, G. (1998) Environmental Engineering, McGraw-HillNew York, 801-826p

[5] Freeman, H.M. (1995) Industrial Pollution Prevention Hand-book, McGraw-Hill New York, 1-119p.

Fig. 2:

WASTEMINIMIZATION

TECHNIQUES

Fig. 1:

THE WASTEMANAGEMENTHIERARCHY

25

POLLUTION PREVENTION IN INDUSTRIAL PLANTS: A GENERAL VIEW NIHAL BEKTAS


AUTONOMOUSDESALINATIONAS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TODECENTRALIZED WATER MANAGEMENT

By SEVAL SÖZEN, SENEM TEKSOY, SERDEN BASAKand ASLI ÇIGGIN*

1.3 billion of the worlds population does not have access to freshwa-

ter which is expected to double in 25 years time. The water demand

has increased 60% in the last 25 years. The problem of water scarcity

has given rise to the evaluation and development of alternative ap-

proaches to the existing water supply practices. Decentralized sys-

tems have been drawing significant attention in the last decades es-

pecially for small communities in remote areas facing fresh water

shortages [1, 2].

*) Seval Sözen is professor at Istanbul Technical University, Environ-mental Engineering Department, Istanbul, Turkey. Her studies concen-trate on environmental biotechnology (activated sludge modeling, bio-logical nutrient removal etc.), industrial pollution control, waste man-agement, integrated water management and water quality modeling.She has directed and supervised a significant number of researchesand projects in the field of wastewater management, industrial pollu-tion control, kinetics of biological processes and integrated water man-agement. She has published more than 60 scientific papers;[email protected]

The concept of autonomous desalination systems(ADS) relying on renewable energy sources (RES)(solar, wind and geothermal, etc.) has recentlybeen introduced in the European Union Co-

funded project namely, ADIRA (Autonomous Desali-nation system concepts for seawater and brackish wa-ter In Rural Areas with renewable-energies-poten-tials, technologies, field experience, socio-technicaland socio-economic impacts). The project focuses onthe implementation of small-scale ADS depending onexisting technologies which have fresh water outputin the range of 100 L/day to 10 m3/day. The countries in-volved are Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus and Tur-key [3].

In the case of Turkey, according to the studies re-viewing the country’s water resources and RE poten-tial, the most feasible option to implement the ADSconcept was pointed out to be the adoption of this con-cept in the Aegean and Mediterranean coast lines.These regions with heavy tourist activities face fresh-water shortages in the high season as a result of thesubstantial increase in the water demand and an un-even distribution of the stored water across the region.The abundance of RES, especially solar and in somecases wind energy, in these regions allows the use ofsea and brackish water as water resources through anenergy sustainable alternative where conditions arealso favourable in terms of the social and economicalsustainability of ADS due to the interest and involve-ment of local entrepreneurs in the tourist sector andthe government organizations. Therefore the small-scale ADS units will provide a sustainable water sup-ply alternative to compensate for the water-deficientsummer seasons.

STATE OF THE ART IN TURKEY:WATER POTENTIAL

Turkey has a total land area of 779 452 km2 (78 mil-lion ha), of which 765 152 km2 is surface water. The to-tal technically and economically usable surface andground water potential of Turkey is only around 110 km3,with 95 km3 (86%) coming from rivers within Turkishborders, 3 km3 (3%) from external rivers originatingoutside the country borders and 12 km3 (11%) fromgroundwater resources [4]. The amount of actual wa-ter consumption through the exploitation of surfacewaters is 26.4 billion m3 as of the groundwater is 7.6 bil-lion m3. The development of water consumption inTurkey is given in table 1 [5].

The consumption trends in the year 2000 revealedthat 75% of the water withdrawn was used for irriga-tion, 15% for domestic use and 10 % for industrial use.

The water resource management in Turkey is basedon a basin approach where the responsible agency, theGeneral Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (SHW),categorizes the country into 26 main hydrological bas-

26

� BRACKISH WATER WELL /SMALL PICTURE: DESALINATION PLANT

AUTONOMOUS DESALINATION as an Alternative Approach to Decentralized Water Management SEVAL SÖZEN, SENEM TEKSOY, SERDEN BASAK and ASLI ÇIGGIN


ins according to their respective drainage areas. Basin-wide mas-ter plans have been realized mostly based on a demand-ori-ented approach. Turkey’s water potential on the basis of basinclassification is depicted in figure 1. It is evident that there is anuneven distribution of water resources among the basins.

The basins in the Mediterranean (Antalya, Bati Akdeniz,Burdur Göller) and Aegean (Kuzey Ege, K. Menderes) regionsare observed to have relatively less stored water.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (RES)

Turkey is unique among other European countries havingsubstantial reserves of RES. The share of RE production of the to-tal primary energy supply (TPES) was approximately 14.4%, i.e.10.10 million tons of oil equivalents (Mtoe) in 1999, as the sec-ond-largest domestic energy source after coal. The main RES inTurkey are hydro, biomass, wind, biogas, geothermal and solar.Turkey is considered to have significant wind energy potentialup to 20,000 MW of which around 8,000 MW is estimated as theusable wind energy potential [7]. The most favorable locationsfor wind power generation; with annual average wind speedsaround 2.5 m/s and annual wind power densities of 2.4 W/m2

are the Marmara Sea region, the Mediterranean and Aegean Seacoasts, and inland Anatolia. The total installed capacity hasreached 18.9 MW and 72 new projects totaling about 2,000 MWare under evaluation by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Re-sources (MENR) [8]. Total production for the year 2001 is152 GWh.

Solar energy also could provide a significant amount ofpower for Turkey, which is calculated as 35 Mtoe per year [7].Preliminary studies indicate that the country has an average of2,640 hours of sunshine annually, and an average solar intensityof 3.6 kWh/m2day, with higher peaks at some locations like theSouth-Eastern Anatolia and the Mediterranean at 3.97 kWh/m2.day and 3.86 kWh/m2.day, respectively [9].

IDENTIFICATION OF SUITABLE REGIONS

The most suitable regions for the implementation of the ADSconcept in Turkey were determined according to the prelimi-nary water and renewable energy potentials. Regions whichhave populations not as dense, not highly industrialized andwhere high RE potentials, especially solar, and a lower amountof stored water may be pointed out as the Mediterranean coastand the west Mediterranean region.

These regions are also known for their high tourist attrac-tions with their natural and historical assets. As a result ofheavy tourist activities, they are exposed to wide fluctuations inwater demand which causes severe water stress. The water de-mand may go up to three times the usual demand in high sea-sons especially in coastal areas. This intolerable water demandalso leads to the unsustainable use of the existing water re-sources as a result of short-term solution approaches. Thereforethese regions may be evaluated as feasible target areas for ADSimplementation since they prove to have the satisfactory RE po-tential and sources of sea and brackish water as alternative wa-ter resources, which may be subjected to desalination to pro-duce potable water.

27

YEAR TOTAL WATER WITHDRAWALSECTORS

Irriagation Domestic Industrial

million m³ % million m³ mill ion m³ mill ion m³

1990 30 600 28 22 016 5 141 3 443

1992 31 600 29 22 939 5 195 3 466

1995 33 500 30 24 700 5 300 3 500

2000 42 000 38 31 500 6 400 4 100

2002 38 900 36 29 200 5 700 4 000

Table 1:

DEVELOPMENTOF WATER

CONSUMPTIONIN TURKEY [6]

Fig. 1:

STORED WATERIN THE BASINS

OF TURKEY



RENEWABLE ENERGY-DRIVENDESALINATION SYSTEMS

The desalination systems driven by RES are scarce, only rep-resenting 0.02% of the total desalination capacity. However,there are many reasons that indicate that the use of RES is feasi-ble for the desalination of sea or brackish water. These havebeen identified in reviews conducted by Garcia Rodriguez(2002) [11] as seasonal changes, energy availability, self-suffi-ciency, technology, environmental impact, economics, andlastly the operation and maintenance. RES are more durableand resistant to deterioration and hence their operation andmaintenance are normally easier than conventional energyones, making them a good choice for remote areas. Their costsalso have been falling significantly during the last decades. Ta-ble 2 summarizes the major desalination technologies coupledwith RES.

CONCLUSIONSThere is a growing awareness that water resources develop-

ment as well as all other types of development efforts must besustainable for the rational management of water resources. Theevaluation of techniques to provide water from alternative re-sources is of critical importance for sustainability because of thepredictable impacts of the expanding population, increasingpollution and the heightened severity of extreme water-relatedevents such as droughts and floods.

Although the major systematic aspect of water-related activi-ties in Turkey is central planning, in order to guide planning atthe national level and facilitate rational decision-making, spe-cial emphasis should be given to develop a decentralized strat-egy, based on the specific water stresses faced by particular re-gions. According to the results of this study, desalination withRES offers a sustainable solution to the water deficiency prob-lems of the tourist regions faced during the high seasons alongthe Mediterranean coast. The abundance of RES, especially so-lar and in some cases wind energy, in these regions makes it pos-sible to evaluate the sea and brackish water as water resourcesthrough an energy sustainable alternative. These regions arealso favourable in terms of the social and economicalsustainability of the ADS due to the interest and involvement ofthe local entrepreneurs in the tourist sector and the governmentorganizations. Therefore the small-scale ADS units will providea sustainable water supply alternative to compensate for the wa-ter-deficient summer seasons.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis project ADIRA with the partners Egyptian Energy and

Water Association, Foundation Marrakech 21, The Middle EastDesalination Research Center, Agriculture University of Ath-ens, National Center for Scientific Research DEMOKRITOS,Technological Institute of the Canary Islands, Jordan Universityof Science and Technology, Istanbul Technical University andFraunhofer ISE and the subcontractors WIP Munich and is sup-ported by the European Commission under contract numberME8/AIDCO/2001/0515/ 59610.

This document has been produced with the financial assis-tance of the European Community. The views expressed hereinare those of the Istanbul Technical University and can therefore

in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the EuropeanCommission.

REFERENCES[1] Kujinga, K. (2002) Decentralizing water management: An

analysis of stakeholder participation in the management ofwater in Odzi sub-catchment area, save catchment, PhysChem Earth, Parts A/ B/ C, 27: 897-905.

[2] Lemos, M.C. and Oliveira, J. L. F. (2004) Can water reformsurvive politics?, World Dev. 32, 2121-2137.

[3] Seibert, U., Vogt, G., Brennig, C., Gebhard, R., Holz, F. (2004)Autonomous desalination system concepts for seawater andbrackish water in rural areas with renewable energies – po-tentials, technologies, field experience, socio-technical andsocio-economic impacts – ADIRA, Desalination, 168, 29-37.

[4] General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (1999)Mapped Statistics Bulletin, Ministry of Energy and NaturalResources, Ankara.

[5] General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (2002), An-nual Report, Ankara.

[6] EC Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, Development of Toolsand Guidelines for the Promotion of the Sustainable UrbanWastewater Treatment and Reuse in the Agricultural Produc-tion in the Mediterranean Countries-MEDAWARE, Sub-task1- Report, Turkey, 2003.

[7] Hanagasioglu M. (1999) Wind energy In Turkey, RenewEnerg. 16, 822–7.

[8] Kaya, D. (2004) Renewable energy policies in Turkey, RenewSust Energ Rev. 10 (2), 152–163.

[9] TÜSIAD (1999) An Overview Of Turkeys Energy StrategyOn The Eve Of The 21st Century, part 5: Renewable EnergyPotentials, Utilization and Development Opportunities.

[10] Kaygusuz K, Sari A. (2003) Renewable energy potentialand utilization in Turkey, Energ Convers Manage, 44,459–78.

[11] Garcia-Rodriguez, L. (2002) Seawater desalination drivenby renewable energies: a review, Desalination, 143, 103-l 13.

[12] Desalination Guide Using Renewable Energies (1998).THERMIE Programme, CRES, Greece, ISBN 960-90557-5-3

[13] Voivontas, D., Misirlis, K., Manoli, E., Arampatzis, G.,Assimacopoulos, D., Zervos A. (2001) Atool for the design ofdesalination plants powered by renewable energies, Desali-nation, 133, 175-198.

28

RenewableEnergy Source Feed Water Desalination

Technology Costs (€/m3)

Solar energy

Solar thermal SW MED, MSF 3.5

PhotovoltaicsSW/BW RO 6.5

BW ED

Wind energySW/BW RO 3

SW MVC

Geothermal SW MED

SW: Sea water, BW: Brackish water, MED: Multi Effect Disti l lation,MSF: Multi Stage Flash, RO: Reverse Osmosis, ED: Electrodialysis,MVC: Mechanical Vapor Compression

Table 2: RES COUPLED WITH DESALINATION TECHNOLOGIES [12, 13]



WINDPOWEREDSEA-WATERDESALINATION PLANTBy ULRICH PLANTIKOW*

The steadily rising world population in connection with changing

climatic conditions not only leads to problems with nutrition but

above all with problems regarding the potable water supply. This

can be observed in the Middle East region dramatically. Between

1940 and 2000, the world population more than doubled. Simulta-

neously water consumption per capita doubled over the same pe-

riod. Following this development, total water consumption has

more than quadrupled, making potable water an increasingly

scarce commodity in many parts of the world also in colder lati-

tudes despite ample total reserves.

*) Dr. Ulrich Plantikow is manager of the WME Gesellschaft fürwindkraftgetriebene Meerwasserentsalzungs mbH, Dranske/Rügen,Germany, [email protected], www.wmea.de

Of the various processes available today, vapourcompression has emerged to become the mostsophisticated process for capacities of up to2,000 m3/day. This simple but effective method

ensures maximum reliability with an almost mainte-nance-free operation. Both the reliability and eco-nomic efficiency of such plants have been demon-strated in numerous installations worldwide.

ECOLOGIC AND ECONOMIC SOLUTION

The growing interest in decentralized systems hasalso prompted efforts to design new plants that oper-ate off the public electric grid and do not, necessarily,require any infrastructure for the supply of fossilsources of energy and also chemicals. Especially re-mote areas need to run their own desalination plantsbecause water transports are expensive. As a result ofthe poor infrastructure in these areas, a desalinationplant that is dependent on the existence of an electricgrid is in many cases no solution to the water problem.The use of wind energy allows the grid-independentoperation of a new desalination system and aside itsconsiderable ecologic advantages, it is a very econo-mic solution.

The stand-alone wind-powered mechanical vapourcompression (MVC) seawater desalination systemwould be of special interest to the tourist industry as itis ideally suited for remote areas and islands in particu-lar. Large numbers of tourists lead to a substantial in-crease in the water consumption per capita, mostly inareas in which water is already scarce.

CONDITIONS FOR OPERATION

The variable nature of wind power is not a prob-lem, because water can be stored inexpensively evenfor long periods of time without deterioration. With aplant that is dimensioned according to the local windconditions, water becomes available at any time.

For the operation of a windpowered desalinationplant it is most important to have a plant that has to beinsensitive to repeated start up and shut down cyclescaused by what are sometimes rapidly changing windconditions.

MVC plants are widely used all around the worldand have proven to be efficient and economic formany applications. Both, the wind turbine and highpressure blower of the MVC-plant, are fluid flow ma-chines with similar characteristics. There is therefore anatural affinity of both machines. By varying the com-pressor speed and the evaporation temperature, thepower consumption can also be adapted to rapidchanges in wind conditions.

The combination of a wind turbine and a MVC [1]plant is therefore able to utilize wind energy to a veryhigh degree at all times and conditions.

The plant described in the following is therefore aMVC-plant with a vertical tube evaporator-conden-sor-unit (see fig. 1).

29

WINDPOWERED SEA-WATER DESALINATION PLANT ULRICH PLANTIKOW


DESCRIPTION OF THE DESALINATION PLANT

The filtered seawater is pumped into an intermedi-ate tank of about 4 m³, and from here into the desalina-tion plant (fig. 2).

For preheating incoming seawater flows in two par-allel lines through plate heat exchangers. In theseexchangers heat is transferred from the outgoing distil-late and brine to the incoming seawater.

The pressure in the following degasifyer is reducedto almost the level of the evaporation pressure of thepreheated seawater using a vacuum pump. The gas-eous components (air and CO2) dissolved in the seawa-ter escape and are removed.

The more water evaporates, the higher the salt con-centration in the remaining seawater. Usually the saltconcentration should not become higher than 7 - 9%,therefore concentrated seawater [2] is led back continu-ously into the sea and fresh seawater is supplied.

RESULTS

The characteristic of the desalination plant isshown in fig. 3. The higher the evaporation tempera-ture and/or the energy input, the larger the amount ofdesalted water. The quality of the produced water ishigh, it is distilled water with an electrical conductiv-ity of less than 5 µS/cm, that means it is also useful forunlimited irrigation, industrial processes and the pro-duction of table water [3].

The wind-powered salt water desalination plantsoperating according to the process of mechanical

30

Fig. 1:

PRINCIPALSCHEME

OF A WINDDRIVEN

DESALINATIONPLANT

Fig. 2:

INSIDE VIEWOF THE PLANT



vapour compression offer an environmental and eco-nomic solution in order to cover the daily demand forpotable water of up to 4000 people. Today these plantsproduce between 4 - 20 m³ distillate per hour.

The method is characterised among other things byan excellent water quality, minimal maintenance,proven technology, high economy and no use of chemi-cals. The process is pollution free and environmentalfriendly.

REFERENCES

[1] U. Plantikow (1999) „Wind-powered MVC Seawa-ter Desalination - Operational Results“, Desalina-

tion 122, p. 291.[2] R. Huß, U. Plantikow (2002) „New Materials in the

Wind Powered Seawater Desalination Plant“, 4th

European Stainless Steel Science and Market Congress,

June 2002, Paris.[3] U. Plantikow, R. Huß (2003) „Production of pota-

ble water by a wind-driven seawater desalinationplant - experience with the operation“, WWEC

2003, Cape Town, South Africa, 23.11.2003 -26.11.2003, World wind energy conference and re-newable energy exhibition.

31

Fig. 4:

OUTSIDE VIEWOF THE WIND DRIVENDESALINATION PLANT

Picture source:Fotos and schemes have been provided byDr. Ulrich Plantikow and LEEN design.

Fig. 3:

CHARACTERISTICOF THE DESALI-NATION PLANT



PR OJECT TITLE / ACRO NYM Count r i esi nvo l v ed C O O R D I N ATI O N I N FO R M ATI O N

Autonomous desalination system concepts for sea water and brackish waterin rural areas with renewable energies – Potentials, Technologies,Field Experience, Socio-technical and Socio-economic impacts / ADIRA

DE, EG, ES,GR, JO, MA,

TR

Agr icul tura l Univers i t y of Athens,Dept . of Natura l Resources andAgr icul tura l Engineer ing (GR)

www.adira.info

Development of tools and guidelines for the promotion of the sustainableurban wastewater treatment and reuse in the agricultural production in theMediterranean countries / MEDAWARE

CY, GR, JO,LB, MA, PS,

SP, TR

National Technical University Athens,School of chemical Engineering.

Unit of Environmental Sciences (GR)

147.102.83.100/projects/

meda/meda.htm

Efficient Management of Wastewater, its Treatment and Re-Usein the Mediterranean Countries / EMWATER

DE, IT, JO,LB, PS, TR

InWent - Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft(DE)

Euro-Med Participatory Water Resources Scenarios / EMPOWERS EG, JO, NL,PS, UK

CARE International(UK)

www.emwater.org

Improvement of irrigation water management in Lebanon and Jordan /IRWA

ES, IT, JO,LB

Istituto per la CooperazioneUniversitaria (IT)

www.irwaproject.com

Institutional and social innovations in irrigation mediterranean management / EG, ES, FR,IT, LB, MA

Agropolis (FR) www.isiimm.agropolis.fr

Mediterranean Drought Preparedness and Mitigation Planning /MEDROPLAN

CY, ES, GR,IT, MA, TN

Mediterranean Agronomic Instituteof Zaragoza (ES)

www.iamz.ciheam.org/medroplan

Stakeholder Participatory Sustainable Water Management at Farm LevelMEDWA

AT, ES, JO,PS

HWA – Hilfswerk Austria (AT) www.hilfswerk-austria.at

Sustainable concepts towards a zero outflow municipality / Zer0-M AT, EG, GE,GR, IT, MA,

TN, TR

Institute for sustainable technologies(AT)

www.zero-m.org

www.emwis.org/meda/projects.htmMEDA WATER PROJECTS

ISIIMM

www.empowers.info

CONCEPTS TOWARDS A ZER0-OUTFLOW MU N IC IPAL ITY

P. 11

P. 18

P. 26

SUSTAINABLE WATERMANAGEMENT 1-2006

ECOLOGICAL SANITATIONWorldwide, there is a disastrous situation in the field of waste-water collection and treatment. Many surface waters are pol-luted with raw wastewater and untreated faeces which presenta big danger for the population. Additionally, water scarcity isincreasing as is soil degradation. It is a challenge to participatein the development of emerging new concepts like EcologicalSanitation.

P. 3

Rainwater harvesting has been practiced for morethan 4,000 years. In many countries it is becoming aconsiderable alternative for water supply, becauseof the shortage and limitations of other conventionalwater resources.

Water scarcity in dry areas is a very critical issue forsustainable development. Greywater treatment andthe use for poverty reduction in rural areas is shownby means of three projects in Jordan.


KNOW HOW TRANSFER BETWEENWATER SCARCE COUNTRIES

AUTONOMOUS DESALINATION

The problem of water scarcity has given rise to theevaluation and development of alternative ap-proaches to the existing water supply practices. De-centralized systems have been drawing significantattention in the last decades especially for smallcommunities in remote areas.

ZER M

This project is funded by the

EUROPEAN UNION

Ph

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Wels

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meda water projects sustainablewater … · mediterranean countries / medaware cy, gr, jo, lb, ma,...

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