Proceedings

In this paper, we have addressed twin problems of energy and water recovery from wastewater which are worldwide problems. Particularly as water sources are limited and energy consumption related to hot water usage in domestic residences is always increasing. The key barriers to the development and commercialisation of domestic heat and water recovery systems are the high installation costs, decades of pay-back periods,
complicated installation and maintenance requirements. Mainly because these systems are too large and require extensive internal modifications to structures of residences or need to be fitted outside. These are serious drawbacks for most consumer domestic residences. We have developed a low cost, retrofittable, water recycling system that can re-use grey water, saving up to 50% and >50% of personal washing water and heat energy usage, respectively. Our study has shown that using the developed system leads to savings of up to 35% of overall household water usage. The developed system can remove up to 100% of pathogenic bacteria commonly found in domestic grey water, thus making the utilisation of the recovered water safe to use in domestic applications such toilet flushing.