Chemical Technology February 2016

Chemical Technology • February 2016

nvirowater, a company based in Durban, special-

ises in the design and installation of grey water

treatment and recycling technology. The tests

performed on the Envirowater technology according to

the Australian Guidelines for Water Recycling, proved

it was able to deliver treated and recycled water to the

standards required by the Australian State of New South

Wales Water and Energy’s “Guidelines for Manage-

ment of Private Recycled Water Schemes”; the State of

Queensland’s “Queensland Plumbing and Waste water

Code”; and the EPA Victoria Guidelines for Environmental

Management’s “Dual pipe water recycling schemes, Health

and Environmental Risk Management” (Publ. 1015).

Most of the solutions discussed in this article focus on

solutions for the more demanding, commercial and multi-

dwelling environments. They are designed for architects,

hydraulic consultants and engineers, developers and hy-

draulic contractors and plumbers and are aimed at helping

them understand how it is possible to tackle the special

requirements these environments present.

Envirowater commercial grey water

treatment (CGT) systems

The CGT Series of products is designed as a packaged plant

able to be tailored to the specific application required by the

end-user. It has been developed from the highly success-

ful and well-proven single-dwelling system using the same

core technology but can also be equipped with enhanced

disinfection capability, control systems and remote man-

agement systems.

Common across all Envirowater’s systems is the ability to

treat and recycle grey water to a high level of quality. Grey

water can originate from showers, baths, basins and laun-

dries but excludes wastewater from kitchens, dishwashers,

toilets and urinals. The patented technology enables the

safe re-use of the recycled water for a range of residential

and commercial applications including cooling tower make-

up, surface landscape irrigation, toilet flushing and water

features. The Department of Water Affairs and Technology,

South Africa (DWAF) regulates which of these applications

are allowable and ensures an effective and reliable treat-

ment process. There are four key steps to the process.

1 Pre-screening

The pre-screening system uses an automatic self-cleaning

mechanical screen to remove hair, lint and other coarse

materials to prevent blockages and fouling of the system.

Due to its unique design the pre-screen requires limited

maintenance interventions and is able to operate effectively

at high processing volumes.

The recycling of

grey water

by Carl Schonborn, PrEng

Grey water recovery and recycling

systems have been providing

sustainable water solutions for

the urban environment for some

time. A range of systems has been

designed to make homes, offices

and commercial undertakings more

water-self-sufficient.