United Arab Emirates University Scholarworks@UAEU Theses Electronic Theses and Dissertations 10-2015 Treatment of Greywater Using Bio filtration and Permeable Pavement Systems Assem Mahn El-Ashkar Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uaeu.ac.ae/all_theses Part of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons Recommended Citation El-Ashkar, Assem Mahn, "Treatment of Greywater Using Bio filtration and Permeable Pavement Systems" (2015). Theses. 181. https://scholarworks.uaeu.ac.ae/all_theses/181 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at Scholarworks@UAEU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarworks@UAEU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Title United Arab Emirates University College of Engineering Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering TREATMENT OF GREYWATER USING BIOFILTRATION AND PERMEABLE PAVEMENT SYSTEMS Assem Mahn El-Ashkar This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Civil Engineering Under the Supervision of Dr. Rezaul K. Chowdhury October 2015 ii Declaration of Original Work I, Assem Mahn El-Ashkar, the undersigned, a graduate student at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), and the author of this thesis entitled “Treatment of Greywater Using Biofiltration and Permeable Pavement Systems” hereby, solemnly declare that this thesis is my own original research work that has been done and prepared by me under the supervision of Dr. Rezaul K. Chowdhury, in the College of Engineering at UAEU. This work has not previously been presented or published, or formed the basis for the award of any academic degree, diploma or a similar title at this or any other university. Any materials borrowed from other sources (whether published or unpublished) and relied upon or included in my thesis have been properly cited and acknowledged in accordance with appropriate academic conventions. I further declare that there is no potential conflict of interest with respect to the research, data collection, authorship, presentation and/or publication of this thesis. Student’s Signature Date iii Copyright Copyright © 2015 Assem Mahn El-Ashkar All Rights Reserved iv Approval of the Master Thesis This Master Thesis is approved by the following Examining Committee Members: 1) Advisor (Committee Chair): Dr. Rezaul K. Chowdhury Title: Assistant Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering College of Engineering Signature Date 2) Member: Dr. Munjed Maraqa Title: Associate Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering College of Engineering Signature Date 3) Member (external): Professor George Nakhla Title: Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Western Ontario University, Canada Signature Date v This Master Thesis is accepted by: Dean of the College of Engineering: Professor Mohsen Sherif Signature Date Dean of the College of the Graduate Studies: Professor Nagi Wakim Signature Date Copy ____ of ____ vi Abstract Municipal wastewater can be divided into two categories, greywater and black water. Greywater occupies about 75% of total wastewater and are relatively less polluted than the black water. Reuse of greywater is becoming popular in many arid and semi- arid regions in order to reduce the municipal water demand. They can be reused for groundwater recharge, landscape irrigation and for toilet flushing. However, the main challenges are their collection, storage and selection of the appropriate treatment system. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is located in a hyper arid region, having an annual average rainfall of less than 100 mm. Reliable survey data for surface water resources are not available here. Three main sources of water resources in the UAE are groundwater, desalinated water and reclaimed wastewater. Despite their scarce water resources, residential water consumption in the UAE is significantly high, of which more than half of the municipal water are used for outdoor activities. The water demand reduction and diversification of water sources are very important for the security of its urban water supply. The study investigated the quantity and characteristics of greywater, and the efficiency of two alternative treatment systems, the biofiltration and the permeable pavement with an underlying reservoir. The study was conducted in the city of Al Ain. Both treatment systems are conventionally used for urban stormwater treatment. They are popularly known as the Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) systems. Laboratory scale prototypes of both systems were prepared and investigated. The estimated greywater generation rate was found about 190 liter/capita/day. The ablution and laundry greywater exhibits the least and most deteriorated greywater, respectively. Both systems performed well in improving the greywater quality, but the vegetative biofiltration unit performed better than the permeable pavement unit. The study revealed that the permeable pavement with an underlying reservoir can be used as a storage unit and subsequent treatment can be achieved in the vegetative biofiltration system. Both systems are well fitted within the urban landscape of UAE. Keywords: Greywater, treatment, biofiltration, permeable pavement, irrigation. vii Title and Abstract (in Arabic) معالجة المياه الرمادية باستخدام الترشيح البيولوجي و اﻷرصفه ذات النفاذيه الملخص تقسم مياه الصرف الصحي الى فئتين، المياه الرماديه والمياه السوداء. تحتل المياه الرماديه مايقارب 75 % من مياه الصرف الصحي التام وهي نسبيا اقل تلوثا من المياه السوداء. إن اعاده استخدام المياه الرماديه اصبح شائعا في العديد من المناطق القاحلة وشبه القاحلة من أجل الحد من الطلب على المياه .كما و يمكن إعادة استخدامها لتغذية المياه الجوفية، وري المسطحات الخضراء وغسل المراحيض. ومع ذلك، فإن التحديات الرئيسية تكمن في جمع وتخزين واختيار نظام المعالجة المناسب. تقع دولة اﻹمارات العربية المتحدة في منطقة ذات درجة قحولة عالية )انخفاض منسوب ومصادر المياه الجوفية( ، مع معدل هطول سنوي لﻷمطار بأقل من 100 ملم. وﻻ يتوفرحاليا احصائيات موثقة للموارد المائية السطحية. هناك ثﻻثة مصادر رئيسية للموارد المائية في دولة اﻹمارات العربية المتحدة وهي المياه الجوفية والمياه المحﻻة ومياه الصرف الصحي المعالجة. على الرغم من ندرة الموارد المائيه، فان معدﻻت استهﻻك المياه في المناطق السكنيه في دولة اﻹمارات العربية المتحدة مرتفع و بشكل ملحوظ، بحيث ان اكثر من نصف المياه المزوده للمناطق السكنيه من قبل البلديه تستخدم لﻷنشطه الخارجيه.ولذلك فأن تخفيض الطلب على المياه وتنويع مصادرها هي امر هام جدا من اجل المحافظة على اﻷمن المائي - اي امداد وتزويد المناطق الحضرية بالمياه-. تبحث هذه الدراسه في كمية وخصائص المياه الرمادية، وكفاءة نظامى الترشيح البيولوجي و اﻷرصفه ذات النفاذيه مع وضع خزان من تحتها . أجريت الدراسه في مدينة العين. كﻻ نظامى المعالجه يستخدمان بشكل تقليدي في معالجه مياه اﻷمطار في المناطق الحضرية، ومن المعروف على أنها أنظمة لمعالجة مياه اﻷمطار في المناطق الحضرية (WSUD). تم اعداد نموذجين مخبريين لنظامي المعالجه في المختبر للفحص والتحقق. ووجد ان معدل انتاج المياه الرماديه يبلغ نحو 190 لترللفرد الواحد في اليوم. وقد وجد ان المياه الرماديه الناتجة عن الوضوء تمثل النسبة اﻻفل بينما المياه الرماديه الناتجة عن غسيل المﻻبس تمثل النسبة اﻻعلى. أداء كﻻ النظامين كان جيدا في تحسين جودة المياه الرماديه، ولكن وحدة الترشيح البيولوجي الخضري كان ادائها افضل من وحده اﻷرصفه ذات النفاذيه. وكشفت الدراسه ان viii وحدة اﻷرصفه ذات النفاذيه مع الخزان السفلي يمكن استخدامها كوحدة تخزين، و يمكن ﻻحقا متابعة المعالجة في نظام الترشيح البيولوجي النباتي. وقد تم تجهيز كﻻ النظامين ليتماشيا مع المظهر الحضري لدولة اﻹمارات العربية المتحدة. مفاهيم البحث الرئيسية: المياه الرمادية، المعالجه، الترشيح البيولوجي، اﻷرصفه ذات النفاذيه، الري. ix Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to praise and thanks to Almighty Allah, the most gracious and the most merciful, without the blessings from Allah I was not able to complete this thesis. My sincere gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr. Rezaul K. Chowdhury, I appreciate him for his valuable guidance and constant assistance throughout this research. With his helpful discussions, constructive criticism and review of the thesis, I am able to complete the thesis on time. I would like to thank everyone, who helped me to complete this thesis by offering their time, expertise and valuable feedbacks and comments. My special thanks to all my family members for their encouragement and moral supports throughout my career. I have no word to express my gratitude to them. I wish to thank the UAE University, the College of Engineering and Graduate Studies, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the coordinator of the Civil Engineering Master Program for providing me the necessary facilities and supports throughout this research. Finally, I would like to acknowledge that the thesis is completed with financial supports from the UAEU-NRF Research Project (31N135) awarded to my supervisor. x Dedication To my beloved parents and family for their endless love, support and encouragements xi Table of Contents Title .....................................................................................................................................i Declaration of Original Work ............................................................................................ii Copyright ..........................................................................................................................iii Approval of the Master Thesis ..........................................................................................iv Abstract .............................................................................................................................vi