POLITECNICO DI MILANO Scuola di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale e Territoriale - MI Laurea Magistrale INGEGNERIA PER L'AMBIENTE E IL TERRITORIO - ENVIRONMENTAL AND LAND PLANNING ENGINEERING Sustainable Wastewater Management in Buildings Supervisor: Dr. Manuela Antonelli,Ph.D. Assistant Supervisor: Eng. Riccardo Delli Compagni Submitted by: Awaz Alfadil Alkhalifa Mohamed 835755 Academic year 2016/2017 Contents List of Tables 10 List of Figures 12 Nomenclature 13 1 Municipal wastewater 2 1.1 Introduction . .2 1.2 Water Consumption . .3 1.3 Wastewater Flows . .4 1.4 Residential wastewater flow division . .5 1.5 Municipal Wastewater Characterization . .7 1.6 Indoor wastewater . 11 1.7 Outdoor wastewater . 16 1.8 Rainwater Harvesting . 17 1.9 Wastewater in Developing Countries . 20 1.10 Compliance to Legislations . 21 2 Sustainable treatment Technologies 24 2.1 Introduction . 24 2.2 Choice of Technology . 24 2.3 Overview of current treatment Technologies . 26 2.3.1 Treatment and Disposal: . 28 3 Living Machines 30 3.1 Introduction . 30 3.2 Successful Installments of LM . 32 3.3 Operating principles . 33 2 Politecnico di Milano - Master's Thesis in Environmental and Land planning Engineering - Academic year 2016/2017 - Awaz Alfadil - Sustainable Wastewater Management in Buildings 3.3.1 Functionality of a LM . 33 3.3.2 Maintenance of LM . 35 3.4 Driving Factors . 35 3.5 System Design . 41 3.6 Advantages of LMs . 43 3.7 Restrictions and Challenges: . 43 3.8 Maintenance: . 44 4 Wastewater treatment using microbial fuel cells MFCs 46 4.1 Introduction . 46 4.2 Progression and evolution: . 47 4.3 MFCs Design . 48 4.4 MFC Operation . 54 4.5 Factors Affecting MFC performance . 56 4.6 Benefits of using MFCs: . 59 5 Sewage Treatment by Vermifiltration and Earthworms' sludge digestion 62 5.1 Introduction . 62 5.2 Characteristics of Earthworms . 63 5.3 Critical factors influencing sewage vermifiltration . 65 5.4 The advantages of vermifiltration technology over conventional wastewater treatment systems . 67 6 Analysis: Case studies 72 6.1 Introduction . 72 6.2 Water' Streams Division . 73 6.3 Vermifiltration . 81 6.4 MFC system . 87 6.5 Recommendations for the future:UV disinfection . 95 6.6 Conclusion . 98 Appendices 99 .1 Appendix . 100 Page 3 Politecnico di Milano - Master's Thesis in Environmental and Land planning Engineering - Academic year 2016/2017 - Awaz Alfadil - Sustainable Wastewater Management in Buildings Bibliography 102 Page 4 Nomenclature ηact;c activation polarization losses on cathode ηact;a activation polarization losses on anode φ Soil Porosity. ' Roof runoff coefficient $ roof runoff coefficient A Area of the Roof in m2 A Roof surface area in m2 A the contact area in the soil profile in m2. Au Gold Au Silver BOD5 5 days Biological Oxygen Demand in mg/l. BOD5 Biological Oxygen Demand in mg/l. BOD5 Biological Oxygen Demand Ca Calcium. Cd Cadmium. COD Chemical Oxygen Demand in mg/l. Cr Chromium Cu Copper. 5 Politecnico di Milano - Master's Thesis in Environmental and Land planning Engineering - Academic year 2016/2017 - Awaz Alfadil - Sustainable Wastewater Management in Buildings DO Dissolved Oxygen Ecell cell potential at T ET Evapotranspiration F Faraday Constant ftimefraction time that users stay in the analysed premise ftimefraction time that users stay in the analysed premise F e Iron. F e3+ Iron g=inhab:d gram per inhabitant per day g=m3 gram per cubic meter gpcd Gallon/capita/day Hg Mercury. I Daily volume of collectable rainwater in L I Daily volume of the collectable rainwater I Electrical Current in Amperes i current flowing through the MFC K Potassium kA kilo Ampere kg=yr Kilogram per year kL kilo Liter kW h Kilowatt per hour, measurement of the electrical en- ergy Page 6 Politecnico di Milano - Master's Thesis in Environmental and Land planning Engineering - Academic year 2016/2017 - Awaz Alfadil - Sustainable Wastewater Management in Buildings kW h Kilowatt per hour kW h=day Kilowatt hour per day LP low pressure LP HO low pressure high output mA milli Ampere mg=l milligram per liter mg=m3 milligram per cubic meter Mn manganese. MnO2 Manganese dioxide MP medium pressure N Nitrogen Nusers Number of users/residents Nusers Number of users/residents NH4 Ammonia NO3 Nitrates O the daily nonpotable water withdrawal from the tank P Phosphorous purine Urine production per day Pel Electrical power in Watts purine Urine production per day P b Lead. Page 7 Politecnico di Milano - Master's Thesis in Environmental and Land planning Engineering - Academic year 2016/2017 - Awaz Alfadil - Sustainable Wastewater Management in Buildings pH Hydrogen Potential P t Platinum Q wastewater flow rate in l/sec. Qr reaction quotient R Daily rainfall depth in mm R Universal gas constant Ri internal cell resistance T Temperature in kelvins t day number t the day number t the time taken by the wastewater to pass through the soil profile. tstorage time of storage T DS Total Dissolved Solids in mg/l. T SS Total Suspended Solids in mg/l. V Voltage in Volts V=day Volt per day Vs volume of soil profile through which the water passes and is inhabited with the earthworms in m3. Vt Water Volume in the tank Vt water volume in the tank Vcell Cell voltage Page 8 Politecnico di Milano - Master's Thesis in Environmental and Land planning Engineering - Academic year 2016/2017 - Awaz Alfadil - Sustainable Wastewater Management in Buildings Voc open circuit Voltage Vstorage Storage Volume Vwastewater The volumetric flow rate of the wastewater. VFA Volatile Fatty Acids. V ol Volume z the number of moles of electrons transferred in the cell reaction Zn Zinc. θ E cell Standard cell potential ... .. Page 9 List of Tables 1.1 per capita water consumption rates [1] . .3 1.2 Wastewater Rates for Residential establishments [2] [3] . .5 1.3 water use for household devices [4] [5] [6] . .6 1.6 Contamination measures and their degree of biodegradation in g=m3 [1].............................8 1.4 Domestic wastewater consistuents [7] . .9 1.5 Main and mutual wastewater components in g=m3 [1] . 10 1.7 Metallic contamination values in residential wastewater in mg=m3 .Source [8], [7] and [9]. 11 1.8 Annual amount of main domestic wastewater components [10] 11 1.9 Reduction with Urine Separation and Cleantech cooking in g=m3 [11]. 12 1.10 Characteristics of grey and black wastewater [12]. 13 1.11 Composition and Quantities of Urine and Human Faeces in urban wastewater [13]. 13 1.12 Water consumption in developing regions . 21 1.13 Investigation and measurment characteristics of wastewater in Developing Countries [14] [1] . 22 3.1 Final removal limits in LM . 43 4.1 MFC Components [15] . 49 4.2 Electrode reactions and corresponding redox potentials . 55 5.1 Vermifilter, Source:Vermifiltration systems for liquid waste man- agement: a review [16] . 67 5.2 Municipal wastewater characteristics [17] . 71 10 Politecnico di Milano - Master's Thesis in Environmental and Land planning Engineering - Academic year 2016/2017 - Awaz Alfadil - Sustainable Wastewater Management in Buildings 6.1 Composition of untreated domestic wastewater [18] . 73 6.2 Building characteristics [19] [20] . 73 6.3 Data about the urination [21] [22] . 74 6.4 calculation of urination and its water consumption . 74 6.5 Data about the defecation [23] . 75 6.6 Rainfall Estimation . 76 6.7 Outdoor water Estimation [19] . 76 6.8 Grey water Estimation [21] . 77 6.9 Grey water characteristics [24] [25] . 77 6.10 Final Effluent from LM adopted from (Living Machines, Inc., 2001). 78 6.12 Vermifilter, Source:Vermifiltration systems for liquid waste man- agement: a review [16] . 81 6.11 Water use [21] [19] . 82 6.13 Hydraulic Retention time approximation for the vermifilter size 83 6.14 Hydraulic loading . 83 6.15 Worm Distribution . 84 6.16 Removal rates . 84 6.17 Final effluent . 85 6.18 Estimates of Lighting duration . 87 6.19 Comparison between different MFC performances . 89 6.20 Estimates of light bulb consumption options for housing: Source easyearth . 90 6.22 Power Generated from a single cell . 92 6.21 Number of operating cells required for each duration and dwelling 92 6.23 Power Generated from a single cell (Grey water) [26] . 93 6.24 UV Dosages for 1=log Inactivation of various organisms . 96 6.25 Water quality with UV installation in mg=l .......... 97 26 T SS Removal efficiency . 101 27 Turbidity Removal . 101 28 BOD5 Removal . 101 29 COD Removal . 101 Page 11 List of Figures 1.1 Comparison of indoor water between 1999 and 2016 [2] [27] . .7 1.2 Urine Separating Toilet . 15 1.3 residential water uses divided by activity and appliance [27] . 16 1.4 The TIR urban landscape requirements [27] . 17 1.5 Residential Rainfall Harvesting System [20] . 18 1.6 Rainwater Harvesting estimation [20] . 19 1.7 Compliance to discharge norms between developed and de- veloping countires.Source:von Sperling and Fattal, 2001,von Sperling and Chernicharo,2002 . 23 2.1 Objectives of wastewater management [28] . 25 2.2 Treatment/ Disposal methods [29] . 28 3.1 Example of LM,South Burlington plant, Source (Todd 2003) . 31 3.2 Diagram of LM and its components,Source:Ochsendorf,Adams and Connor.Design for sustainability,MIT open course ware . 41 4.1 Components of a typical MFCs and its working principle [30] 48 4.2 two-chamber MFC in five different configuration: (A) cylin- drical shape, (B) rectangular shape, (C) miniature shape, (D) cylindrical upflow configuration, (E) Cylindrical U-shaped ca- thodic compartment. Adopted from Delaney et al., 1984; Allen and Bennetto, 1993; Ringeisen et al., 2006; He et al., 2005, 2006). 51 4.3 cylindrical single compartment MFC with eight graphite rods (anode) surrounding the cathode.