GREYWATER RECYCLING AND TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES REVIEW

ABSTRACT
To alleviate water source shortage, immense of advances technologies was made to
conquer environmental issues and to increase public health protection. Due to the steady rise
in worlds’ population has led to the ideas of generating the greywater or wastewater into a
recyclable water source. Identification of greywater characteristics and composition of
different types of effluent could help in facilitates by treating greywater resource and using
them for beneficial purposes. Therefore, greywater which is generated from household
residential with source less organic and coliform compositions can be treated and reuse as
water sources to fullfill the users daily basis such as agriculture, ground water recharge,
landscape irrigation and toilet flushing.
Keyword: Greywater, Wastewater, Technologies, Recyclable, Reuse

1. INTRODUCTION

Greywater is the product of wastewater that generally produced or generated from

residential buildings or office buildings such as kitchen sinks, bathroom streams and laundry
water excluding toilet uses because it has been considered as blackwater. Generally, the
quantity of greywater is varying as it is generated from different household within one
community in certain area which is depending on different factors. The factors that have the
affects toward greywater quantity can be the availability of water and households’ lifestyle.
The accounted of greywater volume was normally between 50% and 80% for greywater
discharges from domestic households.[1] According to Simon Jabornig and Elisa Favero, a
person can daily generated wastewater reaching the values either 55 L/day and 120 L/day.[1-2]
Nowadays, worldwide has been practiced wastewater recycling for a variety of reasons
where it might help to combat water sources shortages, increasing the water availability, and
to maintain the balance of environmental, to promote public health and protections.
Recyclable wastewater becomes the significant ideas to be the alternative ways for water
resources as the freshwater supply demand keeps on scarce. Most common of wastewater
recycling application in worldwide is agriculture irrigation, but, there is also another options
application in industrial, recreational, environmental and urban reuse. Wastewater such as
greywater, sewage water and rain water has the potential of becoming the water sources for

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urban uses. For some cases, greywater and mixed rain water have been used as well as light
greywater including the wastewater from bathroom.[3]
Variability of water uses from residential or other domestic building will produces high
variable quality of greywater. The greywater that was found contaminated has the same
contaminants as raw sewage waste. The contaminants may be containing the nutrients,
pathogens and even organic compound as contained in sewage water. Moreover,
concentrations of contaminants of greywater are lower compared in those that containing in
blackwater and raw sewage water. To account, 70% of total consumed water represented the
greywater which contains only 30% of the organic fraction and 9% to 20% of the nutrients.[1,3]
Ever since water source supply has increased in demand, treating the wastewater is
the one of method to produce water sources for non-potable uses. Methods of wastewater
treatment are varying based on condition of site and the characteristics of greywater sources
and the treatment systems are designed depending on water quality, reuse applications and
the quantity that are going to be treated. Therefore, a wide range of technologies in
greywater treatment that applied and examined for producing effluents water source with
different range of qualities.[4] The aim of presenting the discussion to focus on treatment
options of application from specific countries and to know how the process and treatment
performances means that a formal comparison on how a sustainable of each technology
options.

2. GREYWATER COMPOSITION

As mentioned above, greywater is wastewater the generated from baths, showers, hand
basins, washing machines, dishwashers, and kitchen sinks excluding wastewater from toilet
stream. Wastewater that discharged from the bathroom including showers and tube is
considered as light greywater. Greywater that discharged from laundry facilities, dishwasher
and, sometimes, greywater that discharged from kitchen is considered as dark greywater
which the water discharges contained much more contaminated compared to light
greywater.[4]
According to J.S. Lame & R.S. Chougule, greywater from hand washing and bathing
mostly generated around 50% to 60% and it is considered as wastewater containing the least
contaminated type of greywater. Chemical contaminants includes care products such as soaps,
shampoo, shower cream, hair dye, toothpaste and other cleaning products which is common

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 found in greywater. Besides, some common faecal contaminants which generated through
body washing containing bacteria and that can be discovered in greywater.[5]
Wastewater that generated from laundry washing accumulates around 25% to 35%
while water used in kitchen contributing for about 10% of total greywater volume. Greywater
generated from laundry contains varies in qualities, for example, wastewater from wash water
to rinse water and next to second rinse water. The generated greywater are also containing
faecal contamination that consists of pathogens and parasites, bacteria and viruses. Greywater
from kitchen streams containing contaminants with food particles, oils, fats and other waste
that helps to promote and supports the growth of micro-organisms. It is also containing
chemical contaminants such as cleaning agents which is alkaline in nature which containing
various pollutants of chemical that can be harmful. Therefore, greywater from kitchen may
not suitable for reuse water sources in all types of greywater systems. Below is the illustrated
Figure 1 that presenting sources of greywater with their constituents.[5]

Greywater

Light greywater or low Dark greywater or high

strength greywater strength greywater

Bathroom: Washbasin: Laundry: Kitchen Sink:

 Contains soaps,  Contains soaps,  Contains soaps,  Contains food

shampoo, body toothpaste, body bleaches, oils, residues, high
care products, care products, paints, solvents, amounts of oil &
hair, body fats, shaving waste, and non- fat, dish washing
lint, & traces of hair biodegradable detergents
urine

Reference: (Abeer & Tsun-Kuo Chang. (2015) Review of the greywater and proposed
greywater recycling scheme for agricultural irrigation reuses.)
Figure 1: Greywater sources and their constituents

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3. GREYWATER CHARACTERISTICS

The availability of water resource is always depending on the life standards quality of
water consumptions. As mentioned before, the quantity of greywater is depends on total
water consumption, living life style and habits, and also growth of population structures that
varies from 50% to 80% of household residential and 90% are from toilet if vacuum installed.
Several of greywater volume typically accounting from 90 L/day to 120 L/day, however,
those countries that experiencing chronic water shortage generated in low volume of
greywater that can be as low as 20 L/day to 30 L/day. Greywater quantity were also varies
from urban area to rural area. Published journal research (Abeer Albalawneh & Tsun-Kuo
Chang, 2015) indicates that for about 27% of greywater generated from kitchen sinks,
bathroom, shower and wash basin originated for about 47%, while, greywater from laundry
contributes 26%.[5]

Reference: (Abeer & Tsun-Kuo Chang. 2015)

Figure 2: Volume of greywater in certain countries generated in various rural and
urban areas

4. TECHNOLOGIES OF GREYWATER TREATMENT

It is necessarily for raw greywater to be treated. Untreated greywater might pose human
being heath and their environment in risk, therefore, it should be treated to ensure that a
higher standard could achieve before reusing.[4] In greywater treatment, technologies are
classified based on several treatment principles that can be divided into physical, chemical
and biological system, or the combination of those treatment processes. Basically, these

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technologies are preceded by three different treatment procedures: pre-treatment, main
treatment and post-treatment. Reuse of wastewater for potable purposes are requires a higher
degree of treatment which includes tertiary treatment. For non-potable purposes, the water
quality are basically used in landscape irrigation, agriculture, toilet flushing reuses and
ground water recharges can be achieved more easily by using the conventional and cost
effective treatment techniques such as coagulation, filtration and biological treatment systems.
For effluent recycling, treated water quality must satisfy the characteristics shown in Table
1.[6]

Fecal Residual
BOD Turbidity TSS
pH Coliform Chlorine
(mg/L) (NTU) (mg/L)
(CFU/100mL) (mg/L)
Landscape
6-9 10 2 - 0 1
Irrigation
Agriculture 6-9 30 - 30 200 1
Toilet
6-9 10 2 - 0 1
Flushing
Ground
Water 6.5-8.5 - 2 - 0 1
Recharge
Reference: (Karnapa Ajit. 2016)
Table 1: US EPA reuse water standards for various purposes

4.1 Pre-treatment

Removing of suspended particles such as oil and grease would help the efficiency of
functional of the main treatment scheme. 6 millimetres (mm) or less size of fine screens can
be used in removing the suspended particles such as dust, hair and food particles which
escaping from kitchen sink strainer. Oil and grease are the components that less soluble in
water which reduces their microbial degradation, thereby, it will affect the treatment units.
Therefore, oil trappers must be provided after screening for oil and grease removal.[6]

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4.2 Physical greywater treatment

The system of physical greywater treatment includes the process of sedimentation and
filtration. Normally, filtration usually used as pre-treatment system method or as a post
treatment system method. These methods are considered as removal of turbidity which can be
achieved by physical method like filtration and coagulation where these are the most cost
effective and conventional techniques used in water supply schemes. As the organic loading
in greywater is less, proper designs of filtration or coagulation unit are required to attain BOD
removal standard. Furthermore, a chlorination unit is also required to achieve total coliform
and residual chlorine standards.[6]
4.3 Chemical greywater treatment

The treatment involved chemical substances includes coagulation and flocculation,

electro-coagulation, absorption by using granular active carbon (GAC) and natural zeolites,
magnetic ion exchange resin (MIEX), powdered activated carbon (PAC) and advanced
oxidation processes (AOPs) such as ozonation, and photocatalysis. These system is efficient
for uses of light greywater where in some cases, it would also efficient for the uses of laundry
greywater. In comparison, the chemical processes are able to reduce organic substance and
turbidity in certain greywater to certain degree and it is not sufficient to meet the non-potable
reuse standards especially for high strength greywater.[4]

4.4 Biological greywater treatment

Techniques such as Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR), Rotating Biological Contactor

(RBC) and Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) are effective for comparatively in low
organically loaded greywater. Studies have reported on the biological treatment of greywater
by using (RBC) which results in 85% of COD removal. The BOD, TSS, and turbidity of
effluent were satisfies the effluent reuse of standard, but, total coliform accounted of required
further removal. (RBC) techniques demand an additional filtration unit in order to remove
detached biofilm of particles. Meanwhile, (MBR) are shown efficiency in degrading COD
and detergents apart from high removal of BOD and TSS. Additional advantages for this
technique were the further filtration or sedimentation is not needed for removal of biomass.
Removal of total coliform was 100% showing that the treated water from MBR can be
directly be used for irrigation and toilet flushing.[6]

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5. CONCLUSION

Greywater treatment is an essential method in order to increase demand on water

supply. The necessity of greywater treatment should be applied and spread throughout
worldwide as to prevent shortage on water resources and also to conserve freshwater supply
for potable uses. Therefore, a proper guideline is needed to be done for reuse of greywater
depending upon socio-economic conditions of certain country that will help in deciding
degree of treatment required for various beneficial purposes.

REFERENCES

[1] Othman A. Al-Mashaqbeh, Ayoup M. Ghrair & Sharon B. Megdal. (2012). Greywater
reuse for agricultural purposes in the Jordan Valley: Household Survey Results in Deir
Alla. Royal Scientific Sociaty, Knowledge, Amman-al Jubaiha center, University of
Arizona, Tucon, Az 85721, USA.
[2] Simon Jabornig & Elisa Favero. (2013). Single household greywater treatment with a
moving bed biofilm membrane reactor (MBBMR). University of Innbruck, Institude for
Infrastructure Engineering, Unit for Environmental Engineering, Austria, Università
degli studi of Trieste, Engineering & Architecture Department, Piazzale Eurapa 1,
34127 Trieste, Italy.
[3] Nirmala, M.D, Muthukumar,K & Ravikumar, G. (2016). Review of greywater treatment
methods. Ann University, Chennai.
[4] Abeer Albalawneh & Tsun-Kuo Chang. (2015). Review of the greywater and proposed
greywater recycling scheme for agricultural irrigation reuses. National Taiwan
University, Taipei 10610, Taiwan.
[5] J.S Lame & R.S. Chougule. Greywater-treatment & reuse. Dr J.J. Magdum College of
Engineering, Jaysingpur, 416101, Maharashtra, India.
[6] Karnapa Ajit. (2016). Review on greywater treatment & reuse. New Horizon College of
Enginnering, Bangalore.