Results of the greywater technologies from the demonstration site

The eight innovative demEAUmed technologies, after tests at pre-demonstration level, have been scaled-up, placed at the demonstration site and are being run in real conditions with two main lines for greywater and wastewater treatment. The majority of demEAUmed technologies can be implemented singularly and some of them are being also compared, in terms of efficiency and other environmental and economic parameters, to define the best conditions. All the experiments results are being compared with the requirements of the Spanish Royal Decree 1620/2007 (SRD 1620/2007) and other national and European legislation for many possible reuse applications (like toilet flushing, irrigation of private gardens, golf irrigation, groundwater recharge and laundry). Finally, all installed technologies were connected and are monitored by a common server for supervision, control and data acquisition.

The experiments of the greywater treatment line and the alternative swimming pool water disinfection (five technologies) are being finalized and provided long term characterization with high efficiency for organic compounds, solids, for nitrification and many micropollutants. The MBR proved generally successful for greywater treatment, reducing several contaminants up to the levels required by SRD 1620/2007 for many reuse possibilities. On average 32.6 % of air saving was also obtained by means of the SmartAir patent without significantly affecting the standard parameters removal. The Vertical Ecosystem performance was also very satisfactory, in particular, regarding physicochemical parameters and the effluent of the Vertical Ecosystem can be applied for many reuse purposes included in the SRD 1620/2007. The SPEF unit was optimized, experiments coupling it the MBR and the VertECO technology were completed and long term validation treating greywater directly is on-going. The Plimmer unit was able to greatly reduce the water conductivity. Coupled to an organic reduction system (MBR or also the green wall technology) and possibly with a disinfection stage, the greywater treated by Plimmer could be reused up to a very high quality for many reuse purposes with some parameters in line with drinking water quality. The experiments with the alternative swimming pool water disinfection (UVOX) confirm that the system will allow reducing the need of residual disinfectant in swimming pools and limiting disinfection by-product formation. Higher UV dose (ozone was not applied) did not improve the inactivation of B. subtilis spores while ozone in the UVOX treatment improved the inactivation of B. subtilis spores.

The installation of the wastewater treatment line is completed and the experiments with the electrocoagulation-electro flotation technology as a primary treatment followed by the MBR are on-going with an improved wastewater catchment from the hotel manhole. The electrochemical ozonation and the 172 nm UV treatment, with an improved software and optimized lamp frame and electrical driver, are ready to be tested.