Institution Of Civil Engineers. Proceedings. Engineering Sustainability, vol.

160, page 119-131

Greywater recycling: A review of treatment options and

applications

Dr. Marc Pidou1*

Dr. Fayyaz Ali Memon2
Prof. Tom Stephenson1
Dr. Bruce Jefferson1
Dr. Paul Jeffrey1

1
School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University
2
School of Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Exeter
* Corresponding author – Centre for Water Science, Building 39, Cranfield University, Cranfield,
Beds. MK43 0AL.
Email: m.pidou@cranfield.ac.uk

Key words: greywater, recycling, technologies.

1
Abstract

Wastewater is an immense resource which could have significant applications in

regions of water scarcity. Greywater has particular advantages in that it is a large

source with a low organic content. Through critical analysis of data from existing

greywater recycling applications this paper presents a review of existing technologies

and applications; collating a disparate information base and comparing / contrasting

the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. Findings suggest that simple

technologies and sand filters have been shown to achieve only a limited treatment of

the greywater whereas membranes were reported to provide good removal of the

solids but could not efficiently tackle the organic fraction. Alternatively, biological

and extensive schemes achieved good general treatment of greywater with a

particularly good removal of the organics. The best overall performances were

observed within the schemes combining different types of treatment to ensure

effective treatment of all the fractions.

2
Introduction

Wastewater recycling has been and continues to be practiced all over the world for a

variety of reasons including; to increase water availability, combat water shortages

and drought, and support environmental and public health protection.1 The increase

in water demand is due mainly to the steady rise in the world’s population which also

generates an increase in wastewater production. Consequently wastewater, if recycled,

becomes a significant source of water that could potentially cover for the lack of fresh

water observed elsewhere. Worldwide, the most common application for wastewater

recycling is agricultural irrigation.2 However, other options such as industrial,

recreational, environmental and urban reuse have been practised.3 The potential

sources identified for urban reuse are sewage4, greywater5 and rain water6, where

greywater is defined as domestic wastewater excluding toilet flush. In some cases,

mixed rain and grey waters7 have been used as well as a ‘light greywater’ including

only the sources from the bathroom.8

The advantage of recycling greywater is that it is a large source with a low organic

content. To illustrate, greywater represents up to 70% of total consumed water but

contains only 30% of the organic fraction and from 9 to 20% of the nutrients.9

Moreover, in an individual household, it has been established that greywater could

support the amount of water needed for toilet flushing and outdoor uses such as car

washing and garden watering.10 For example in the UK, on average, toilet flushing

and outdoor use represent 41% of total domestic water usage whereas greywater from

shower, bath, hand basin, laundry and dishwasher correspond to 44% (Table 1).

However, at larger scale, other applications such as irrigation of parks, school yards,

3
cemeteries and golf courses, fire protection and air conditioning have been

considered.12

That greywater recycling is both feasible and can contribute to sustainable water

management is now widely accepted. However, greywater only schemes are currently

the poor relations of water recycling activities on the global stage. This paper provides

a long overdue review of existing technologies and applications; collating a disparate

information base and comparing / contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of

different treatment options. Our ambition in presenting the data in this way is to

provide a critical and context sensitive analysis of the performance attributes of

technologies used for greywater treatment. The focus on treatment performance

means that a formal comparison of just how sustainable each technology option is

cannot be explicitly addressed. However, the ability to meet published quality criteria

for sub-potable water uses is a pre-condition for considering these technologies for

application and it is in this context that the information presented is of value. Of

relevance to both practitioners and researchers, the material also comprises a

contemporary account of greywater reuse applications.

Treatment technologies for greywater recycling

Investigations into the treatment and recycling of greywater have been reported since

the 1970’s.13-16 The first technologies studied were mainly physical treatment options

such as coarse filtration or membranes often coupled with disinfection.14, 15 Later in

the 1980’s and 1990’s, biological based technologies such as rotating biological

contactor17, biological aerated filters2, 18

and aerated bio-reactors19-21 were

investigated. During the same period, simple physical separators coupled with

4
disinfection processes were being developed and installed in single houses.19, 22, 23 In

the late 1990’s reports also emerged on the use of advanced technologies such as

MBRs24-27 and alternatively cheaper extensive technologies such as reed beds 28-31 and

ponds.32, 33
Interestingly, only three chemical treatments, photocatalysis35, electro-

coagulation34 and conventional coagulation36, were reported in the literature.

Schemes for greywater recycling have been found in most parts of the world. No

specific trend could be identified between the types of treatment used and the

locations; although it is thought that poorer countries will favour the use of low cost

and low maintenance technologies for economic reasons. For instance, Dallas and

Ho37 investigated the use of fragments of PET plastic from water bottles as a cheaper

media in constructed wetlands in Costa Rica. Similarly, in Jordan, Bino38 used a

simple, low cost and easy to build treatment system made of plastic barrels. Further,

in Oman, Prathapar et al.39 designed and tested a low cost, low maintenance system

based and activated carbon, sand filtration and disinfection for the treatment of

ablution water in a mosque.

No international regulations have been published to control the quality of treated

effluent for reuse. However, many countries have individually produced their own

guidelines depending on their needs. Because the main issue when using recycled

water is the potential risk to human health, the standards are usually based on

microbial content. However, as has often been shown, the aesthetics of the water to be
40, 41
reused is probably as important because of the perception of the public.

Therefore, the standards include parameters for the treatment of the organics and

solids fractions such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), suspended solids (SS)

5
and turbidity. Examples of standards of countries from around the world are reported

in Table 2. The differences seen in the regulations for water reuse in different

countries result in a range of values for the chosen water quality parameters. For

instance, standards for BOD, turbidity, faecal coliforms and total coliforms range

from 5-40 mg.L-1, 2-20 NTU, 0-103 cfu.100mL-1 and 0-104 cfu.100mL-1 respectively.

Consideration of all of the standards from around the world suggests that specific

targets of BOD <10 mg.L-1, turbidity <2 NTU and a non detectable level of faecal

coliforms.100mL-1 is a sensible conservative level and will be used as the main

performance criteria throughout this paper.

Twenty six of the sixty four schemes reviewed were pilot or bench scale systems for

research purpose. The other 38 systems were full scale as they were fitted in buildings

and the treated greywaters were reused for specific applications. The different

applications reported were toilet flushing, irrigation or garden watering, outdoor use

and cleaning, laundry and infiltration (Table 3). Toilet flushing and irrigation were the

most commonly used applications with 54% and 36% of the schemes respectively.

Most of the full scale schemes were installed in individual houses; only twelve of

them were at a bigger scale such as stadiums, hotels, group of houses or residences.

The different schemes reported varied a lot in size and the treated effluent flow rates

were found to vary between 0.01 and 622 m3.day-1. However, 70% of the schemes (of

which the flow rate was known) had a flow rate below 3.4 m3.day-1 (Figure 1).

Another way to evaluate these schemes is to classify them by type of treatment. It was

then possible to group them into five categories as follow: simple (coarse filtration

and disinfection), physical (sand filter, adsorption and membrane), biological

6
(biological aerated filter, rotating biological contactor and membrane bioreactor),

extensive (constructed wetlands) and chemical (photocatalysis, electro-coagulation

and coagulation).

Most of these technologies are operated with a screening or sedimentation stage

before and/or a disinfection stage (UV, chlorine) after. For instance, Nolde17 reported

the treatment of greywater with a rotating biological contactor preceded by a

sedimentation tank and followed by UV disinfection. Similarly, Friedler25 reported the

use of a 1 mm screen and disinfection with hypochlorite respectively before and after

a membrane bioreactor. The most commonly used technologies are the biological

systems followed by physical and extensive treatments (Table 4).

Simple treatment systems

Simple technologies (Table 5) used for greywater recycling are usually two-stage

systems based on a coarse filtration or sedimentation stage to remove the larger solids

followed by disinfection (Figure 2).5, 19, 23

Mars45 reported the use of even simpler

systems with only a coarse filter or a sedimentation tank in Western Australia where

the regulation allows the reuse of greywater after such simple treatment for subsurface

irrigation.

Simple technologies provide only a limited treatment of the greywater in terms of

organics and solids. To illustrate, average removals of 70, 56 and 49% for COD,

suspended solids and turbidity have been reported in the literature (Table 5).

However, good removal of micro-organisms due to the disinfection stage have been

observed with total coliforms residuals below 50 cfu.100mL-1 in the treated

7
effluents.19, 23 Consequently, these systems are preferably used at small scale such as

single household. Moreover, they are usually used to treat low strength greywater

from bath, shower and hand basin due to the limited treatment they can achieve and

subsequent applications are toilet flushing and garden watering. Little information is

available in the literature on the hydraulic performance of these systems; however, the

hydraulic retention time (HRT) should be short as a result of their simplicity. March et

al.5 reported an HRT of 38 hours for a large scale system installed in an 81-room hotel

in Spain.

Simple systems are marketed and promoted as being simple to use and with low

operational costs.46 However, two systems installed in individual households in the

United Kingdom with similar capital and operational and maintenance (O & M) costs

of £1195 and £50/year and £1,625 and £49/year respectively were found to be

economically unsustainable as the water savings were not sufficient to cover the O &

M costs.19, 23
Only the scheme located in the hotel in Spain was reported to be

economically viable. Indeed, the system including two 300 µm nylon filters, a

sedimentation tank and disinfection with sodium hypochlorite had a capital cost of

17,000 € (~£11,500) and the O & M cost were calculated at 0.75 € (~£0.50) per cubic

meter. A saving of 1.09 € (~£0.74) per cubic meter was then attained and a pay back

period of 14 years was obtained with the system operative only 7 months per year.

Chemical treatment systems

Only three schemes using a chemical technology for greywater recycling were

reported in the literature (Table 6; Figure 3). The treatment technology of two of the

schemes was based on coagulation with aluminium. The first one was a combination

8
of coagulation, sand filter and granular activated carbon (GAC) for the treatment of

laundry greywater.36 The second combined electro-coagulation with disinfection for

the treatment of a low strength greywater.34 The final example provided a good

treatment of the greywater with BOD and suspended solids residuals of 9 mg.L-1, a

turbidity residual of 4 NTU and undetectable levels of E. Coli. However, it should be

noted that the source had a really low organic strength with a BOD concentration of

23 mg.L-1 in the raw greywater. The first system also achieved good treatment with

residuals of 10 mg.L-1 for BOD and below 5 mg.L-1 for the suspended solids, with the

coagulation stage itself achieving 51% of the BOD removal and 100% of the

suspended solids removal. The two technologies achieved these treatments with rather

short contact times. Indeed, the hydraulic retention times in the two schemes were

around 20 and 40 minutes. Similarly, the third scheme based on photocatalytic

oxidation with titanium dioxide and UV achieved good treatment within a relatively

short time. Indeed, with an HRT of less than 30 minutes, it was reported to achieve a

90% removal of the organics and 6 log removal of the total coliforms.35

Capital costs of US$0.08/m3 (~£0.04/m3) and 0.11 €/m3 (~£0.07/m3) and O & M costs

including energy, consumables, sludge treatment and labour of US$0.19/m3

(~£0.10/m3) and 0.40 €/m3 (~£0.27/m3) were reported for the electro-coagulation

system34 and the coagulation, sand filter and GAC system36 respectively. No

information on water savings were available, it was therefore not possible to assess

the viability of these schemes.

Physical treatment systems

9
Physical systems (Table 7 & Figure 4) can be divided into two sub-categories; sand

filters and membranes. Sand filters have been found to be used alone47 or in

combination with disinfection15 or with activated carbon and disinfection.15, 22, 39 Used

as a sole treatment stage, sand filters provide a coarse filtration of the greywater.

Similarly to the simple technologies previously reviewed, sand filters achieved limited

treatment of the different fractions present in the greywater. To illustrate, Itayama et

al.47 described the treatment of high strength kitchen sink water by a soil filter and

reported removal of 67% for the BOD and 78% for suspended solids with respective

residual concentrations of 166 and 23 mg.L-1, well short of any published standards

for reuse. When coupled with a disinfection stage, only the removal of micro-

organisms is obviously improved. Indeed, Hypes et al.15 in their investigation of the

treatment of bath and laundry greywater by an earth filter combined with chlorine

based disinfection observed poor removal of the turbidity and suspended solids with

removals of 47 and 16% respectively. However, the system achieved a 4.8-log

removal of the total coliforms and a residual concentration of 34 cfu.100mL-1 was

measured in the effluent. Finally, sand filters in association with activated carbons and

disinfection does not result in a significant improvement in the removal of the solids.

Indeed, average removals of 61 and 48% were reported for turbidity and suspended

solids respectively. Nevertheless, good micro-organism removal rates were again

reported. Prathapar et al.39 and Hypes et al.15 described total coliform concentrations

in the treated effluents of 0 and 4 cfu.100mL-1. Similarly, CMHC22 reported a faecal

coliform residual of 8 cfu.100mL-1 after treatment by sedimentation and a multi media

filter.

10
Hypes et al.15 and Itayama et al.47 reported hydraulic loading rates of 0.32, 0.24 and

0.086 m3.m-2.d-1 for three systems based on filtration through soil. These were

extremely low hydraulic loading rates in comparison to typical values reported for

similar systems for the treatment of other waters and wastewaters. Indeed, Metcalf

and Eddy48 reported hydraulic loading rates ranging from 115 to 576 m3.m-2.d-1 for

simple, dual and multi-media filters with sand and/or anthracite for the treatment of

wastewater. Similarly, Vigneswaran and Visvanathan49 reported hydraulic loading

rates of 2-5 and 120-360 m3.m-2.d-1 for slow and rapid sand filter respectively.

Alternatively, treatment by membranes provided a limited removal of the organics but

an excellent removal of the dissolved and suspended solids. To illustrate, removal of

up to 100% of the turbidity and suspended solids have been recorded14, 50, 51
, and

otherwise residual concentrations below 2 NTU for the turbidity and below 10 mg.L-1

for the suspended solids, sufficient to meet the strictest standards for reuse, were

generally observed. In contrast, Birks47 and Sostar-Turk et al.36 reported BOD

residuals of 86 and 53 mg.L-1 respectively, above the criteria for reuse, after treatment

with ultra-filtration (UF) membranes.

However, the pore size of the membrane used will have an important impact on the

treatment achieved. For example, Ramon et al.51 compared the performance of a

nano-filtration (NF) membrane with a molecular weight cut off (MWCO) of 0.2 kDa

and three UF membranes with MWCO of 30, 200 and 400 kDa for the treatment of

shower water. The performance was shown to be better with lower pore sizes

especially in terms of organics removal. Indeed, COD removal of 45, 49, 70 and 93%

were reported for the membranes with MWCO of 400, 200, 30 and 0.2 kDa

respectively. Differences in turbidity removal performance were less obvious with

11
similar orders of removal of 92, 94, 97 and 98%. Similarly, Sostar-Turk et al.36

investigated the use of a UF membrane (0.05 µm pore size) followed by a reverse

osmosis (RO) membrane for the treatment of laundry wastewater. The UF membrane

decreased the BOD from 195 to 86 mg.L-1 corresponding to a removal of 56%. The

RO membrane then decreased the BOD from 86 to 2 mg.L-1 corresponding to a

removal of 98%. A similar trend was observed for the removal of suspended solids

with values of 49 and 56% for the UF and RO membranes respectively. Very little

information was available on the removal of micro-organisms by membranes;

however, Jefferson et al.53 reported an average total coliforms removal of 3 log after

filtration of greywater through a micro-filtration membrane revealing limited action of

the membrane for mico-organisms removal. Similarly, Judd and Till54 reported a

general breakthrough of E. Coli when treating sewage with a micro-filtration

membrane. They also found that this phenomenon was enhanced in the presence of

proteins suggesting that proteins, when adsorbed on the surface of the membrane,

facilitated the transport of the bacteria through the pores.

The main issue when operating membranes is fouling. This will have an influence on

the operation of the systems and the costs as membrane cleaning will be needed.

Interestingly, Sostar-Turk et al.36 observed no fouling when treating laundry

wastewater with a UF membrane for 150 minutes at a flux of about 130 L.m-2.h-1 and

with a RO membrane for 120 minutes at a flux of about 37 L.m-2.h-1. Similarly, Ahn

et al.50 reported no fouling during 12 hours for the treatment of greywater through two

UF membranes and one MF membrane at flux around 200 L.m-2.h-1. These results

suggested that no fouling under those conditions occurred in the short term. However,

Nghiem et al.55 investigated the fouling of UF membranes during synthetic greywater

12
treatment. They observed that the fouling increased linearly with the organic matter

(humic acid) concentration. To limit membrane fouling the membrane stage can be

preceded by a pre-treatment such as screening or sand filter for example. To illustrate,

Ward56 studied a process combining both physical processes, sand filter and

membrane, and disinfection for the treatment of a low strength greywater. With a

residual of 8 mg.L-1 for the BOD and undetectable levels of turbidity and E. Coli, the

system was good enough to meet the strictest standards for reuse. This high level of

treatment was possible because of the sequence of processes. Indeed, the sand filter

provided a pre-treatment by removing the bigger particles. Reductions of the BOD

from 23 to 17 mg.L-1 and turbidity from 18 to 17 NTU were observed. The rest of the

treatment was then achieved by the membrane and disinfection stages.

Biological treatment systems

A wide range of biological processes have been used for greywater recycling (Table 8

& Figure 5). Processes such as fixed film reactors17, 19-20, 56-57
, rotating biological

contactor17, 58
, anaerobic filters38, 59
, sequencing batch reactor21, membrane

bioreactors2, 24-27, 60 and biological aerated filters (BAF)2, 18, 52, 61-62 were reported in

the literature. Biological systems were rarely used individually and when it was the

case it was for investigation of the processes at pilot scale.2, 52

In most cases, the

biological processes were preceded by a physical pre-treatment such as

sedimentation17, 38, 59 or screening18, 57-58 and/or followed by disinfection.17, 19, 63 They

were also combined with membranes in processes such as MBRs24-26, sand filter63,

activated carbon18, 19 and constructed wetland.61

Biological schemes when installed at full scale were the type of treatment most

commonly seen in bigger buildings. Indeed, systems could be found in student

13
 18-19, 58 17, 20
residences , multi-storey buildings and stadiums.62, 64 Hydraulic retention

times (HRTs) ranging from 0.8 hours up to 2.8 days were reported for the biological

systems. Higher HRTs were observed for systems treating very high strength

greywaters such as laundry water24 and mixed greywater38 with BOD concentrations

of 645 and 300-1200 mg.L-1 respectively. However, HRTs in biological systems were

reported to be on average 19 hours. Very little information was available on solids

retention time (SRT) in the biological systems. Organic loading rates were found to

vary between 0.10 and 7.49 kg.m-3.day-1 for COD and between 0.08 and 2.38 kg.m-
3
.day-1 for BOD. In detail, the average organic loading rate in MBRs was 0.88

kgCOD.m-3.day-1 which is lower than the typical values of 1.2-3.2 kgCOD.m-3.day-1

reported by Stephenson et al.65 for wastewater treatment. In contrast, the average

organic loading rate found for the other systems such as BAF, RBC and bio-films was

1.32 kgBOD.m-3.day-1 which is in the range of 0.3-1.4 kgBOD.m-3.d-1 reported for these

systems.48

Independent of the number and type of processes included, all schemes with a

biological stage achieved excellent organic and solids removal. Indeed, all the

biological systems reviewed but two were reported to meet the most stringent BOD

standard for reuse with residual concentrations below 10 mg.L-1. Similarly, the

turbidity concentrations in the effluents were below 8 NTU for all the systems

reviewed. And finally, all schemes but one had suspended solids residual below 15

mg.L-1. In terms of micro-organisms, once again, those schemes including a

disinfection stage achieved excellent removals with an average 5.2 log removal for

faecal coliforms and 4.8 log for total coliforms. Residual concentrations for both

faecal and total coliforms were always below 20 cfu.100mL-1. Interestingly, MBRs

14
were the only systems to achieve good micro-organism removal without the need for a

disinfection stage. To illustrate, average removal of both faecal and total coliforms

were reported at 5 log and the corresponding residual concentrations were below 30

cfu.100mL-1. Additionally, MBRs achieved excellent removal of the organic and solid

fractions with average residuals of 3 mg.L-1 for BOD, 3 NTU for turbidity and 6

mg.L-1 for suspended solids.2, 24-25, 27, 60

However, Jefferson et al.53 reported that at

small scale, the variation in strength and flow of the greywater and potential shock

loading affect the performance of biological based technologies.

To illustrate, Laine2 investigated the effect of domestic product spiking on biomass

from an MBR and reported that products such as bleach, caustic soda, perfume,

vegetable oil and washing powder were relatively toxic with EC50 of 2.5, 7, 20, 23 and

29 mL.L-1 respectively. Moreover, Jefferson et al.66 studied the reliability of a BAF

and an MBR under intermittent operation of air, feed and both. The performance of

the MBR was not affected by interruption of the feed, air or both as the time taken by

the process to return to its original performance level was always very short (in fact

no interruption in performance level was observed). A similar result was found when

the feed was stopped for 25 days. However, in comparison, the BAF did not exhibit

the same robustness. Although short term interruptions (30 minutes) did not have an

effect on the BAF performance, longer cessation of the feed and/or air, generated an

increase in the effluent concentrations and the recovery times for all the parameters.

Indeed, after an interruption of the feed of 8 hours, the recovery times were 4, 4, 40

and 48 hours for turbidity, suspended solids, faecal coliforms and total coliforms

respectively. Similarly, after the same interruption of the air, the recovery times were

4, 4, 24, 28 and 24 hours for BOD, turbidity, solids, faecal coliforms and total

15
coliforms respectively. The longest recovery times were observed after the

interruption of both air and feed simultaneously with 40, 40, 4, 24, 48 hours for BOD,

turbidity, solids, faecal coliforms and total coliforms respectively. Finally, none of the

parameters had recovered to their pre-interruption levels within 48 hours of the

interruption of the feed for 25 days.

Again, limited information is available about the costs of the systems. Surendran and

Wheatley18 reported a capital cost of £3,345 for the construction and installation of a

retro-fit system in a 40-student residence composed of a buffering tank with

screening, an aerated biofilter, a deep bed filter and GAC. The O & M costs were

£128/year including the energy, labour and consumables. With water savings of

£516/year, the pay back period is 8-9 years. They estimated that if the system was

fitted in a new building the capital cost could be reduced to £1,720 and then the

adjusted pay back period would be 4-5 years. The system reported by McQuire57

comprising a screening filter, a treatment tank with bio-film grown on aggregate balls,

a particle filter and UV disinfection unit installed in an individual house was

estimated to cost between Aus$6,200 and Aus$8,200 (£2,514-£3,325). Alternatively,

Bino38 reported a low cost, easy to built system composed of four plastic barrels

installed in a 6- person house with a capital cost of US$370 (~£197). No information

on the operational costs and water savings were reported for these two schemes.

Finally, Gardner and Millar 63 reported a capital cost of Aus$5,500 (£2,230) and O &

M costs of Aus$215/year (£87/year) for a system based on a septic tank, a sand filter

and UV disinfection. However, the water savings of Aus$83/year (£34/year) were not

enough to cover the costs. Similarly, Brewer et al.19 estimated the costs of an aerated

bioreactor combined with a sand filter, GAC and disinfection with bromine installed

16
in a student residence at £30,000 for the capital cost. But once again, the O & M costs

of £611/year exceeded the water savings of £166.

Extensive treatment technologies

Extensive technologies for greywater treatment usually comprise constructed

wetlands such as reed beds and ponds (Table 9 & Figure 6). These are often preceded

by a sedimentation stage to remove the bigger particles contained in the greywater and

a sand filter to remove any particles or media carried by the treated water. The most

common type of plants used in reed beds is Phragmites australis.28, 31, 67-68 However,

they are considered noxious weed species in Costa Rica so Dallas et al.32 and Dallas

and Ho37 investigated an alternative macrophyte, Coix lacryma-jobi. Alternatively,

two studies have investigated the use of a range of plants. Frazer-Williams et al.68

reported the use of Iris pseudocorus, Veronica beccabunga, Glyceria variegates,

Juncus effuses, Iris versicolor, Caltha palustris, Lobelia cardinalis and Mentha

aquatica in their GROW system. Similarly, Borin et al.67 reported a system planted

with ten different species (alisma, iris, typha, metha, canna, thalia, lysimachia,

lytrum, ponyederia and preselia).

The constructed wetlands reported in the literature showed good ability to treat

greywater. Indeed, an average BOD residual of 17 mg.L-1 was observed and more

than half of the extensive treatment schemes reviewed reported a residual BOD

concentration below 10 mg.L-1. Similarly, average residual concentrations of 8 NTU

for turbidity and 13 mg.L-1 for suspended solids were reported. In contrast, poor

removal of micro-organisms was described. Average removal of 3.6 and 3.2 log were

reported for faecal and total coliforms respectively, with residual concentrations

17
generally above 102 cfu.100mL-1 for both indicators. In terms of hydraulics, for the

extensive systems reported, HRT was found to vary from a couple of hours up to a

year for on particular scheme composed of three ponds.33 However, after removing

the extremes, the HRT for extensive technologies was on average 4.5 days. Borin et

al.67 compared the performance of two constructed wetlands, one planted with the

common reed Phragmites australis and the second with a range of ten species.

However, no significant differences in treatment effectiveness were observed between

the two systems. To illustrate, concentrations in the effluent of 25.8 and 26.6 mg.L-1

for the BOD, 20 and 30 mg.L-1 for the total suspended solids and 51.2 and 50.5 mg.L-1

for the COD were reported for the systems with the ten species and Phragmites

australis respectively.

Besides being seen as environmentally friendly technologies, constructed wetlands

have been considered as cheap options. Indeed, Dallas et al.32 and Shrestha et al.31

described reed beds with capital costs of US$1,000 (£531) and US$430 (£229)

respectively and very low operating costs.

Discussion and conclusions

A review of the standards for greywater recycling and the characteristics of

greywaters showed that a technology used for the treatment of greywater for reuse

should be able to achieve excellent treatment of the organic, solids and microbial

fractions (Table 2). On the other hand, the review of the greywater recycling schemes

reported to date proved that different types of technologies achieved very different

performance. Simple technologies and sand filters have been shown to achieve only a

limited treatment of the greywater whereas, membranes were reported to provide a

good removal of the solids but could not efficiently tackle the organic fraction.

18
Alternatively, biological and extensive schemes achieved good general treatment of

greywater with a particularly good removal of the organics. Although less information

was available about chemical systems, they showed promising abilities to treat

greywater with short retention times. Micro-organism removal was sufficient to meet

the standards only in schemes including a disinfection stage; however, MBRs were

the only systems able to achieve good microbial removal without the need for

disinfection.

In conclusion, the best performances were observed within those schemes combining

different types of treatment to ensure effective treatment of all the fractions. For

instance, Ward56 reported the treatment of a low strength greywater with an aerated

biological reactor followed by a sand filter, GAC and disinfection with residual

concentrations of 2 mg.L-1 for BOD, 1 NTU for turbidity and <1 cfu.100mL-1 for total

coliforms. Similarly, Friedler et al.58 investigated the treatment of bathroom greywater

by a rotating biological contactor combined with a sedimentation tank, a sand filter

and disinfection with hypochlorite and reported residuals of 0.6 NTU, 5 mg.L-1, 2

mg.L-1 and 1 cfu.100mL-1 for turbidity, suspended solids, BOD and faecal coliforms

respectively. In contrast, MBRs were the only individual technology (although they

comprise a combination of activated sludge and membrane) to be credited with

similar performance.To illustrate, Laine2 reported residuals of 1 mg.L-1 for BOD, 1

NTU for turbidity, 4 mg.L-1 for suspended solids and 1 cfu.100mL-1 for total

coliforms in a greywater treated by a side-stream membrane bioreactor. In the same

way, Liu et al.27 reported effluent concentrations of <5 mg.L-1 for BOD, <1 NTU for

turbidity, and undetectable levels of suspended solids and coliforms following

treatment by a submerged membrane bioreactor. All these systems met the most

19
stringent standards for reuse; however, the level of treatment required is often

dependent on the reuse applications (Table 2). Consequently, technologies generating

a lesser quality effluent may still be of interest for applications where the standards

are less strict.

A review of the HRT applied to each type of system demonstrated that the two

reviewed chemical systems worked with very low HRT, below an hour. With an

average HRT of 19 hours, the biological systems proved to be efficient over rather

short periods of time. Finally, the extensive technologies were the systems working at

the highest HRT with an average value of 4.5 days. The shorter HRTs observed with

biological technologies than with extensive systems for similar performance give an

advantage to the biological treatments.

Another feature of greywater recycling systems which influences their application is

the footprint as space is often limited in urban environments. Systems using

biological, chemical or physical technologies have been found to generally have a

smaller footprint than extensive technologies. For example, Fittschen and

Niemczynowicz28 reported a footprint of about 1000 m2 for a scheme including a

sedimentation tank, a reed bed, a sand filter and a pond treating the greywater of a

100-inhabitant village, corresponding to 10 m2 per inhabitant connected. Similarly,

Dallas et al.32 reported the treatment of the greywater of 7 persons from 3 houses by a

sedimentation tank, two reed beds and a pond with a total footprint of about 40 m2,

corresponding to 5.7 m2 per person. In contrast, Nolde17 reported a system composed

of a sedimentation tank, a rotating biological contactor and disinfection installed in

20
the 15 m2 basement of 70-person multi-storey building, corresponding to 0.2 m2 per

person connected.

Finally, we would note that the value of the contribution which the reviewed

technologies can make to sustainable water management will vary as a function of

local circumstances and regional preferences. Ensuring that greywater recycling

systems are complementary with Integrated Water Resources Management in

catchments or urban contexts will drive a variety of solutions and a variety of

measures of sustainability. Information on Life Cycle Cost and total energy

requirements for greywater treatment options is sparse. The trade-offs between scale

of application, embedded energy in capital equipment, operating energy requirements,

pollutant emissions, reject stream disposal, social costs, etc. etc. are the subject for a

subsequent paper. However, the power of circumstance to modify preference can be

demonstrated by the fact that a concern with carbon footprint might preclude the use

of high energy requirement technologies such as the MBR but at larger scales of

application and where higher variation in greywater quality is found, the energy

consumption of an MBR compared with other options would be much more

favourable. The review presented above provides a comprehensive data set for

developing more detailed and evidenced sustainability assessments.

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27
 100%

80%
Percentile (%)

60%

40%

20%

0%
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
3
Flow rate (m /day)

Fig. 1: Distribution of the flow rates of the reported technologies.

28
Fig. 2: Typical flow diagram of simple systems with either screening or sedimentation
and disinfection.

29
Fig. 3: Typical flow diagram of chemical technologies with separation by filtration or
flotation.

30
Fig. 4: Typical flow diagram for physical technologies.

31
Fig. 5: Typical flow diagram of biological technologies and side-stream and
submerged MBRs.

32
Fig. 6: Typical flow diagram of extensive technologies.

33
Table 1: Distribution of domestic water usage.11
Toilet flushing 35%
Wash basin 8%
Shower 5%
Bath 15%
Laundry 12%
Dishwasher 4%
Outside use 6%
Kitchen sink 15%

34
 Table 2: Standards for wastewater reuse.
Parameters
Faecal Total
Application BOD5 TSS Turbidity
Coliforms Coliforms
(mg.L-1) (mg.L-1) (NTU)
(cfu.100mL-1) (cfu.100mL-1)
Toilet
- - <2 - ND
flushing
Japan 42
Landscape - - <2 - <1000
Recreational - - <2 - ND
Wastewater
Israel 29 10 10 - <1 -
reuse
Spain,
Wastewater
Canary 10 3 2 - 2.2
reuse
Islands1
2.2 avg
USA, Unrestricted 2 avg
- - - 23 max in 30
California1 water reuse 5 max
days
25% of sample
USA, Unrestricted
20 5 - ND and 25 -
Florida1 water reuse
max
Greywater
reuse for
Australia,
garden
Queensland 20 30 - - 100
43 watering in
unsewered
area
Canada,
Unrestricted
British 10 5 2 2.2 -
urban reuse
Columbia 44

35
 Table 3: Distribution of applications for greywater reuse.
Applications
Toilet flushing 54 %
Irrigation and Garden watering 36 %
Outdoor use and cleaning 5%
Laundry 2.5 %
Infiltration 2.5 %

36
Table 4: Distribution of the schemes by type of treatment.
Technology Number %
Simple 8 12.5
Physical 13 20.3
Biological 25 39.1
Extensive 15 23.4
Chemical 3 4.7
Total 64 100

37
 Table 5: Performance data of simple technologies.
HRT Performance
Building type (flow rate, COD BOD Turbidity SS Total coliforms
Location Scheme
/ Application loading (mg.L-1) (mg.L-1) (NTU) (mg.L-1) (cfu/100mL)
rate) In Out In Out In Out In Out In Out
Hotel / Toilet Screening + Sedimentation
Spain5 38 hours 171 78 - - 20 17 44 19 - -
flushing + Disinfection
19 House / Toilet
UK Filtration + Disinfection - 74 11 - - 2 1 - - TNTC 46
flushing
House / Toilet
UK19 Filtration + Disinfection - 157 47 - - 21 7 - - 2.105 13
flushing
Houses /
Coarse filtration
UK23 Toilet - - 166 - 40 - 40 - 35 - ND+
+Disinfection
flushing
House / Toilet
USA69 flushing and Cartridge filter - - - - - 21 7 19 8 2.108 2.106
irrigation
House /
Australia45 Garden Sedimentation + Trench - - - - - - - 405 100 - -
watering
House /
Australia45 Garden Sedimentation - - - - - - - 310 195 - -
watering
House /
Australia45 Garden Screening + Trench - - - - - - - 155 76 - -
watering
TNTC: too numerous to count.

38
 Table 6: Performance data of chemical technologies.
HRT Performance
Building type / (flow rate, COD BOD Turbidity SS Total coliforms
Scheme
Application loading (mg.L-1) (mg.L-1) (NTU) (mg.L-1) (cfu/100mL)
rate) In Out In Out In Out In Out In Out
Photocatalytic oxidation <30 139- 26-
UK35 Bench scale - - - - - - 106 0
(TiO2/UV) minutes 660º 139º
Coagulation + Sand filter ~ 40
Slovenia36 Pilot scale 280 20 195 10 - - 35 <5 - -
+ GAC minutes
~ 20
Electro-coagulation + minutes
Taiwan34 Pilot scale 55 22 23 9 43 4 29 9 5100* ND*
Disinfection (28
m3/day)
* as E. Coli; º as TOC.

39
 Table 7: Performance data of physical technologies.
Performance
Building HRT
COD BOD Turbidity SS Total coliforms
Location type / Scheme (flow rate,
(mg.L-1) (mg.L-1) (NTU) (mg.L-1) (cfu/100mL)
Application loading rate)
In Out In Out In Out In Out In Out
House /
(0.086
Japan47 Garden Soil filter 271 42 477 166 - - 105 23 - -
m /m2/day)
3
watering
2 hours
549
USA15 Pilot scale Earth filter + Disinfection (0.32 - - - - 17 9 ~ 460~ 2.106 34
m /m2/day)
3

Earth filter + Activated (0.24 500

USA15 Pilot scale - - - - 23 9 394~ 1.105 4
carbon + Disinfection m3/m2/day) ~

Filtration + Activated
Mosque /
Oman39 carbon + Sand filter + (1.3 m3/day) 51 35 - - 13 6 9 4 >200 0
Irrigation
Disinfection
Apartment
Screening + Sedimentation
22 building /
Canada + Multi-media filter + (1 m3/day) - - 130 - 82 26 67 21 8870* 8*
Toilet
Ozonation
flushing
Sand filter + Membrane + (4.37
UK56 Pilot scale 65 18 23 8 18 0 - - 5.103 * 0*
Disinfection m3/day)
UF membranes (400kDa) - 146 80 - - 18 1.4 - - - -
51 UF membranes (200kDa) - 146 74 - - 17 1 - - - -
Israel Bench scale
UF membranes (30kDa) - 165 51 - - 24 0.8 - - - -
NF membranes - 226 15 - - 30 1 28 0 - -
RO membrane - 130 3 86 2 - - 18 8 - -
Slovenia36 Pilot scale
UF membrane - 280 130 195 86 - - 35 18 - -
Hotel /
50
Korea Toilet Membranes - 64 10 - - 10 0 - - - -
flushing
Coarse filtration + RO + <10
USA14 Pilot scale - - - - - 30 0 102 5.107 0
Disinfection 0
52
UK Pilot scale UF membrane - 451 117 274 53 - - - - - -
~
* as E. Coli; as Total solids.

40
 Table 8: Performance data of biological technologies.
HRT Performance
Building type / (flow rate, COD BOD Turbidity SS Total coliforms
Location Scheme
Application loading (mg.L-1) (mg.L-1) (NTU) (mg.L-1) (cfu/100mL)
rate) In Out In Out In Out In Out In Out
Screening + Sedimentation +
Stadium / Toilet (622
Japan64 Flotation + Rotating filters + 243 6 336 20 - - 207 10 - 10
flushing m3/day)
Sand filter + Disinfection
Anaerobic filter + Submerged
(1.735
Japan59 House biofilter + Sedimentation + - 11 - 8 - - - 6 - -
m3/day)
Disinfection
13 hours
Sequencing batch reactor + MF
Korea21 Pilot scale (1.2 79 30 5 5 - - 185 - - -
hollow fibre membranes
m3/day)
Screening + Membrane 130- 99- 146- 15-
China27 Pilot scale 3.6 hours <40 <5 <1 0 - ND
bioreactor 322 212 185 50
Screening + Rotating biological
Student flats / Toilet 6.105
Israel58 reactor + Sedimentation + Sand ~18 hours 158 40 59 2 33 1 43 8 + 1+
flushing
filter + Disinfection
Student flats / Toilet Screening + Membrane 3.105
Israel58 ~18 hours 206 47 95 1 80 0 103 13 + 27+
flushing bioreactor + Disinfection
Sedimentation + Anaerobic 300-
Jordan38 House / Irrigation 1-2 days - - 375 - - - 107 - -
filter 1200
2-2.5 days
170
Denmark24 Industrial laundry Membrane bioreactor (60 50 645 2 - - - - - -
0
m3/day)
Sedimentation + Rotating
Apartment building / (2.1 100- 43- 104-
Germany17 biological contactor + UV - <4 - - - - <104
Toilet flushing m3/day) 200 85 105
Disinfection
House / Toilet Fluidized bed reactor + UV (0.04 113- 60- 103-
Germany17 - <4 - - - - <104
flushing Disinfection m3/day) 633 256 105
Apartment building / Aerated biofilter + UV 800 1.106
Finland20 - 75 - - - - - - + 20+
Toilet flushing Disinfection 0
House / Toilet
Screening + Biofilm + UV
Australia57 flushing, laundry and - - - - 9 - 6 - 9 - 0*
Disinfection
garden watering

41
 HRT Performance
Building type / (flow rate, COD BOD Turbidity SS Total coliforms
Scheme
Application loading (mg.L-1) (mg.L-1) (NTU) (mg.L-1) (cfu/100mL)
rate) In Out In Out In Out In Out In Out
House / Toilet flushing Septic tank + Sand filter + UV
Australia63 - - - 97 6 - 1 48 3 2.105 9
and outdoor use Disinfection
Septic tank + Aerated biofilter
Norway61 Houses / Irrigation - - 62 - <10# - - - - - <100
+ Constructed wetland
Germany60 Pilot scale Membrane bioreactor 10 hours 493 24 - - - - 7 4 - -
Screening + Aerated biofilter
Student residence /
UK18 + Deep-bed filter + Activated - - - - 9 - 1 - 6 - 995
Toilet flushing
carbon
4 hours
UK52 Pilot scale Biological aerated filter (0.4 363 80 131 5 - - 109 8 - -
m3/m2/h)
Student residence / Biological reactor + Sand (263
UK19 201 62 - - 212 5 - - 7.105 3
Toilet flushing filter + GAC + Disinfection m3/year)
3.7 hours
UK2 Pilot scale Biological aerated filter (0.328 128 13 41 4 - 3 52 6 2.106 2.104
m3/day)
13.6 hours
Submerged membrane
UK2 Pilot scale (0.071 128 7 41 1 - 4 52 4 2.106 2
bioreactor
m3/day)
0.8 hours
UK2 Pilot scale Membrane aeration bioreactor (0.225 128 17 41 9 - 7 52 13 2.106 2.104
m3/day)
2.8 days
Side-stream Membrane
UK2 Pilot scale (0.137 273 2 181 1 - 1 58 4 3.104 1
bioreactor
m3/day)
Biological aerated filter + UF
UK62 Pilot scale 1.2 hours 80 6 - - 25 0 52 1 6.105 <1
membrane
Biological reactor + Sand (2.88
UK56 Pilot scale 34 12 21 2 20 1 - - 2.102 <1
filter + GAC m3/day)
1.25-5
UK62 Arena / Toilet flushing Biological aerated filter hours (120 84 14 - - - - 31 3 3.105 3.103
m3/day)
+
as Faecal Coliforms; # as BOD7.

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 Table 9: Performance data of extensive technologies.
HRT Performance
Building type / (flow rate, COD BOD Turbidity SS Total coliforms
Location Scheme
Application loading (mg.L-1) (mg.L-1) (NTU) (mg.L-1) (cfu/100mL)
rate) In Out In Out In Out In Out In Out
Horizontal flow reed bed 2.1 days 452 111 151 51 63 12 87 31 6.107 104
68 2 hours
UK Pilot scale Vertical flow reed bed 452 27 151 5 63 2 87 9 6.107 2.104
batch
Constructed wetland 2.1 days 452 139 151 71 63 26 87 19 6.107 2.106
Sedimentation + Vertical flow
Israel29 House / Irrigation 8 -24 hours 839 157 466 0.7 - - 158 3 5.107 + 2.105 +
constructed wetland
House / Toilet flushing
USA69 Aquacell + Sand filter - - - 120 4 64 4 40 17 4.107 5.104
and irrigation
House / Toilet flushing Aquacell + Sand filter +
USA69 - - - - - 79 4 36 5 2.107 6.105
and irrigation Copper dosing + Disinfection
Aquacell + Sand filter +
House / Toilet flushing
USA69 Copper and silver dosing - - - - - 15 3 19 7 6.108 3.104
and irrigation
+Disinfection
> 10 days
Costa Rica32 3 Houses / Irrigation 2 Reed beds + Pond (0.755 - - 167 3 96 5 - - 2.108 + 198+
m3/day)
4-5 days
Costa Rica37 Pilot scale Trench and plants (0.01 - - 254 13 103 - - - 8.107 + 2050+
m3/day)
House / Toilet flushing,
Nepal31 cleaning and garden Sedimentation + Reed bed (0.5 m3/day) 411 29 200 5 - - 98 3 - -
watering
Sedimentation + Constructed 258- 3.105
Germany30 Houses (70 L/p/day) - - - - - - - 104 *
wetlands 354 *
Research centre / Sedimentation + Sand filter +
Switzerland70 - 311 27 130 5 - - - - - -
Infiltration Constructed wetland
7 days
Italy67 University Reed beds (0.09 151 51 42 26 - - 25 20 - -
m3/day)
Sedimentation + Reed bed +
Sweden28 Village / Irrigation 4 days 361 56 165# <5# - - - - 3.106 <20
Sand filter
33 Student residence / Lime gravel filter + 3 Ponds +
Sweden ~ 1 year - - 47# 0# - - - - 9.104 172
Toilet flushing Sand filter
* as E. Coli; + as Faecal Coliforms; # as BOD7.

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