China Going "Toilet to Tap" By 2010

Envirovore just got finished dissecting one of China's more questionable environmental policies (feeding pollution to fish...and the fish to people.) Well, here's another environmental decision that, while more sound, still kinda gives me the willies.

In fact, converting waste water to drinkable water has long been the holy grail of water treatment. Generally, we can only get the water just clean enough to dump it into some body of water without causing too much harm to the system. Cleaning it to the point where it is once again safe to drink is possible, but has remained prohibitively expensive.

Tongji University's Siqing Xia is both lead researcher and champion for his small-scale water-reclamation facility. Right now, the facility creates "gray water" that is suitable for things like flushing toilets and irrigation. But after a bit of further treatment through ion-exchange and reverse osmosis filtration, the facility could produce tasty drinkable water.

Xia hopes to have a full-scale toilet-to-tap project operating in time for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. We can't help but wish him luck. Unfortunately, it seems that convincing the population that they should drink this water might be even more difficult than making it economically viable. But when a country grows like China, and demands for water are ever-increasing, these sorts of technologies will be vital to keeping those pressures off the rivers and aquifers.

Via TreeHugger

Email this

Comments (13) Add Comment

Subscribe to this comment's feed

...
written by monotonehell, February 27, 2008

There's been several research projects in Australia along these lines. Unfortunately the public's reaction has been similar to yours. Where in fact treated and filtered recycled water is cleaner than what you get from a reservoir.

It's just ignorance.

Who says they'll even known?
written by Justin Long, February 28, 2008

This is China. Who says the general public will even know where their water comes from? Most people today have no idea anyway...

Simp... err, Brisbane Did it!
written by Dylan Lacey, February 28, 2008

This isn't just being discussed in Brisbane, Australia, it's being done. The plants are half finished.

You can find details here: http://www.westerncorridor.com...px?docID=1

Completion is scheduled for the end of 2008.

...
written by Christiaan, February 28, 2008

Done, a lot smaller, in the UK too... but in a much better way, much smaller and with no expensive filtration, etc:
http://www.ecoplay-system.com/

Ecoplay
written by Christiaan, February 28, 2008

Done, a lot smaller, in the UK too... but in a much better way, much smaller, with no expensive filtration, little energy (even more so with heat exhchanger attached) etc:
http://www.ecoplay-system.com/

OC Groundwater Replinishment System
written by Jonathan, February 28, 2008

I've been following this for a few years now. The plant in China is a great step towards meeting the demanding challenges of water needs vs. supply, but the credit for their project actually goes to the Orange County Water district (in California), who have an aggressive proactive stance on sustainability. The OCWD (http://www.ocwd.com/, it's actually worth a visit to read about their other projects) recently began operation on their own "sewer to tap", or as they dub it, "Groundwater Replenishment System" treatment plant. The one in China is a scaled down version of the one in OC (I can remember when the Chinese delegates visited the area), and can process about 1/3 the amount of water. I was pretty sure the china facility was online already, but I guess that's only half true. While people are squeamish about the idea, the reality is that the water is so pure that minerals have to be added back in for taste; it's better than bottled water. Still, by pumping the water back into the ground (OC is also using it for the seawater intrusion barrier) they are mitigating the "eww" factor, and more importantly ensuring that there will be enough water for future generations.

~Jonathan

Balderdash!
written by Edward, February 29, 2008

This is a concept that was being heavily discussed by waste treatment plants and water supply agencies in the late 1980's as well. Then as now, it was shown that it is actually not all that difficult to get waste water to a level of purity better than that entering most municipal water systems. In fact, in some cases, the water being dumped into waterways by waste treatment plants is causing a dilution effect that is dropping the concentration of critical dissolved nutrients in healthy streams to a level that has difficulty supporting the desired microfauna.

Continued...
written by Edward, February 29, 2008

The point being... this option has usually been shot down not for technical reasons but for public opinion reasons. For some people, the idea of drinking water recycled from their own waste is distasteful. Ironically, these same people don't seem to care that living creatures drop waste in their water supply on a daily basis in every reservoir on the planet...

If its clean water, drink it. Don't ask where it came from.

Please learn!
written by HHHH, February 29, 2008

All the comments just prove how ignorant this post is. Why assume this issue negatively when you do not even know the issue well enough? Smaller metropolitan cities like Hong Kong and Singapore have already test this process in the last decade.

Newater
written by mC, March 02, 2008

In Singapore, its called Newater. I believe the first plants were completed in 2002. Its suppose to be cleaner than our tapwater (which is supposed to be potable and very clean already). There's an entry on Wikipedia

BTW, no one has an absolute handle on all the knowledge in the world, we should share what's out there. Play nice