Wastewater comes in three main types namely Blackwater, Graywater and Yellow water.

Blackwater
This is wastewater that originates from toilet fixtures, dishwashers, and food preparation sinks. It is
made up of all the things that you can imagine going down the toilets, bath and sink drains. They
include poop, urine, toilet paper and wipes; body cleaning liquids, anal cleansing water and so on.
They are known to be highly contaminated with dissolved chemicals, particulate matter and is very
pathogenic.

Graywater
This is wastewater that originates from non-toilet and food fixtures such as bathroom sinks, laundry
machines, spas, bathtubs and so on. Technically it is sewage that does not contain poop or urine.
Graywater is treated very differently from Blackwater and is usually suitable for re-use.

Yellow water
This is basically urine collected with specific channels and not contaminated with either blackwater
or graywater.

How is wastewater harmful?

In certain parts of the world, especially in developing countries, wastewater is

pumped directly into the sea or into fresh water bodies without any form of
treatment. In other parts of developed countries, lack of adequate wastewater
treatment infrastructure, maintenance and outdated systems heavily compromise
wastewater treatment efforts. The effects of this (either treated or partly treated)
can be classified in the following:

Water pollution:
Fresh water bodies and marine waters into which wastewater is discharged may be
polluted and rendered unsafe for human use. Depending on what is discharged,
aquatic life may be harmed too.

Water security:
There is water scarcity in many places in the world. Wastewater discharged on lands
can leach into underground water tables and potentially contaminate aquifers and
underground water. If discharged in freshwater bodies, it may render water sources
unsuitable for use.

Ecosystem services:
All ecosystems are connected and they all ultimately
depend on water. Similarly, all water (surface and
underground) is connected. This means careless
wastewater discharge can have some serious ripple
effect. One common effect of wastewater is the
eutrophication of fresh water bodies and oceans. If one
part of the ecosystem chain is destroyed, it can upset
its entire food chain.
Agriculture / Fisheries / Tourism:
Wastewater for irrigation may contain unsuitable chemicals and higher
concentrations of nutrients needed for crops. This can result in delayed and under
yielding. Wastewater used for animal farming may also contain harmful things and
chemicals dissolved in them. Animals may die, and there is a chance that humans
that eat such animals may be harmed too. In some places, faecal sewage is
discharged directly into the sea. The discharge contains pathogens and harmful
dissolved chemicals which can affect fishing in that area. The smell and such
behavior does not encourage tourism to that area.

Health of urban and rural populations:

Wastewater is a big health issue, as it carries and transports a myriad of diseases
and illnesses. It is believed that about 2.2 million people die each year (globally)
from diarrhoeal disease. (WHO) At least 1.8 million children under five years die
every year due to water related disease, or one every 20 seconds (WHO, 2008).

Good wastewater management efforts will enforce existing policies and introduce
new and relevant policies, funding, legislation, encourage voluntary agreements,
engage private and public sectors and expand education on the issue.

These five areas must be emphasized:

1. Preventive practices:
Laws, policies and advocacy should be designed to encourage all stakeholders to
reduce the generation of wastewater. This will reduce the volume of wastewater that
we have to eventually deal with.

2. Capture the wastewater immediately:

Appropriate technology and practices must be laid to capture wastewater straight
from its source and directed to the right places for treatment. This part will involve
significant investment, but the long-term benefits will be worth it. It may involve
laying different underground pipes to carry different types of wastewater.

3. Treatment:
In many rural dwellings all over the world, the sun, vegetation, soils and bacteria
are able to take care of wastewater naturally if discharged into the environment with
little or no treatment. It is possible because the volumes are very small. In urban
centers the amounts of wastewater produced is staggering and simply impossible for
nature to take care of. This is why we need to treat wastewater using appropriate
and relevant technology before discharging into the environment.

4. Recycle and re-use water:

This involves the use of physical, biological and chemical principles to remove
contaminants from wastewater. The type of wastewater will determine the kind of
principle to apply. Water recycle, reuse and reclaim are often used to mean the
same thing. An example is water that is used over and over again for cooling
purposes in an energy plant. Another example is to capture gray water (those from
sinks, shower and laundry drains) and reused for landscaping, construction and
concrete mixing purposes.

5. Education, Awareness, Advocacy and Stewardship:

Stakeholders should provide a friendly background for the development of new ideas
and technologies to managing the issue. Each person and all groups of people
should be adequately informed about the threat and the need to reduce wastewater
and welcome the potential in managing them with socially and culturally appropriate
methods and technology.

Irrigation and Agriculture:

Stormwater, urban runoff and effluent from animal farms can be captured for
irrigation and other farming needs. This kind of wastewater is usually high in
nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, micronutrient and organic matter) and
farmers love it. They are able to save on fertilizer cost and also preserve surface and
underground water that they would have otherwise used.

In the US state of California, 31% of reclaimed water is used for crop or landscape
irrigation. In Mexico, most of the wastewater from Mexico City is used in irrigation
districts surrounding the city, notably the Tula valley.

Note that sludge from treatment sites are also used in composting sites and also
sent to rural agricultural fields.

Energy and Construction:

The waste materials (sludge) collected from a treatment plant can be biodegraded in
a controlled environment and then combusted (burnt at high temperatures) to
release Methane (A gas similar to natural gas). This can be used in boilers at homes
and in buildings, as well as for cooking and heating purposes. Note that this digester
kind of biodegrading can contain contaminants and so the process has to be done
properly. The sludge from treatment plants can also be combusted to produce
electricity.

Note that there are different types of sludge. Sludge could be faecal (from human
and animal poop flushed down the drains) and regular sludge, from rubbish and
garbage that get into drains and sewage systems. Faecal sludge is high in
contaminants and must be treated well before discharge.
Household:
Smart thinking by rural and urban dwellers can offer some real benefits to
households too. For example, water use in the kitchen can be collected and used to
water flowers and lawns. A couple of gallons each day means a significant saving on
water by the end of the year! Families can also reduce the amount of wastewater
they produce by smart use of bathrooms.

Water related diseases:

Globally, two million tons of sewage, industrial and agricultural waste is discharged
into the world’s waterways and at least 1.8 million children under five years-old die
every year from water related disease, or one every 20 seconds.

Wastewater treatment in Carlifornia USA:

In California, 100,000 miles of sanitary sewers and more than 900 wastewater
treatment plants manage the approximately 4 billion gallons of wastewater
generated every day by the state’s citizens, businesses and visitors, according to the
2012 California Infrastructure Report Card prepared by the American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE). “This engineered wastewater infrastructure serves their
ratepayers and customers and visitors very well in their mission to protect public
health and the environment,” the report card noted in an excerpt.
ISBN-13: 978-1-61948-003-2 – Abridged Edition, California Wastewater
Prepared by the Water Education Foundation

USA daily wastewater processing:

Most homes and businesses send their wastewater to a treatment plant where many
pollutants are removed from the water. Wastewater treatment facilities in the United
States process approximately 34 billion gallons of wastewater every day.
The Sources and Solutions: Wastewater. http://www2.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/sources-and-solutions-wastewater

Global wastewater treatment:

Globally, only 20% of wastewater produced receive proper treatment. (UNESCO
2012). Treatment capacity typically depends on the income level of the country,
thus treatment capacity is 70% of the generated wastewater in high-income
countries, compared to only 8% in low-income countries.
Wastewater Management A UN-Water Analytical Brief
http://www.unwater.org/fileadmin/user_upload/unwater_new/docs/UN-
Water_Analytical_Brief_Wastewater_Management.pdf

Car wash water use

On the average, a self-serve facility uses 20 gallons of water per vehicle with 3-5
gallons of water loss through evaporation and carryout. Tunnel car wash facilities
can wash from 100 to 1,000 cars a day, using an average of 80 gallons of water per
car.
Page 5,7, Guide to Best Management Practices. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Pollution Prevention
Program and Industrial Wastewater Section.

The Great Lakes Sewage Dump:

A study by Sierra Legal found that more than 90 billion litres of untreated sewage
were dumped into the Great Lakes each year. That’s the same as dumping over 100
Olympic swimming pools of raw sewage into the Great Lakes, every day!
THERMAL HYDROLYSIS

Thermal hydrolysis technology serves three purposes: wastewater treatment, the

reduction of waste byproduct, and the production of biogas. Traditional wastewater
treatment plants must plan for dealing with large sums of sludge produced during
the industrial wastewater treatment process. Thermal hydrolysis plants, on the other
hand, do not define sludge as waste, but a valuable source of energy.

Once wastewater is treated and the sludge is collected, then begins the production
of biogas. The sludge is heated and compressed in large vats. The temperatures
required range from 160 to 165 degrees Celsius and the pressure required is
anywhere from high pressure 7 – 11 or 12 bars.

There are two thermal hydrolysis technologies: batch – or biothelys – and Exelyis.

Biothelys (Batch) Thermal Hydrolysis

Biothelys Technology requires large tracts of land for each plant and must be
supplied with large quantities of wastewater every day in order to produce enough
biogas to remain viable. However, for large municipalities, neither requisite is
generally an issue and the production of biogas can be a considerable revenue
stream.

Exelys Thermal Hydrolysis

Exelys Technology can be productive on less space and requires a smaller volume
of wastewater to maintain viable. In addition to Exelys Technology requiring
considerably less area, it produces 130 percent more biogas than the next most
productive thermal hydrolysis systems using the same amount of sludge. The
amount of end-waste is also reduced.

The development of an Exelys Plant is expensive, the operating costs are far less
than those of other thermal hydrolysis systems.

MICROBIAL FUEL CELLS

Another technology that performs three functions simultaneously, microbial fuel cells
(MFC) technology uses bacteria to clean wastewater. Even more impressive is the
fact that the byproduct of the bacteria’s consumption of wastewater sludge is
charged electrons that can be converted into electricity.

Scientists have already had success generating substantial quantities of electricity in

laboratory conditions by taking the electrons produced during bacterial oxidation and
transferring them to an electrode.
If MFC technology can be produced on a large scale, less fossil fuels would be
required to generate electricity.

SOLAR PHOTOCATALYTIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT

One of the biggest obstacles with respect to treating wastewater is deciding what to
do with the sludge produced. Solar photocatalytic wastewater treatment can reduce
sludge amounts by over 80 percent compared to traditional wastewater treatment
systems.

Sludge, also known as “organic content,” is reduced dramatically by a photocatalytic

system because of a microbial decomposition – oxidation – process called “solar
irradiation.” Solar irradiation is a synergetic effect that, when combined with
hydrogen peroxide, reduces the amount of carbon in the sludge – carbon being the
primary element in organic content.