fbpx

What Are the Different Types of Wastewater?

Broadly speaking, wastewater is any water that’s been used. That could be by an individual, a business or an industrial process such as farming or manufacturing. However, this can be broken down further, depending on where the water comes from and what’s in it.

There are two (2) types of wastewater.
First of all, wastewater can be broken down into two broad categories: (a) sewage, and (b) non-sewage.

What is sewage?
Sewage is wastewater that comes from domestic activities. Domestic sources can includes houses, public toilets, restaurants, schools, hotels and hospitals. These buildings all produce a lot of wastewater on a daily basis, which generally contains urine and faeces.

What is non-sewage?
Non-sewage covers all other types of wastewater. That includes rainwater and stormwater from flooding, water from commercial activity like garages or laundrettes and water from industrial plants.

Wastewater in your home
In a domestic sense – the kind we’re all most familiar with – wastewater is split into three categories: (a) black, (b) grey, and (c) yellow.

What is blackwater?
Blackwater is wastewater that comes from your toilet, kitchen sink and dishwasher. It contains all the contaminants you would expect from these appliances and fixtures. Faeces, urine and toilet paper, bits of discarded food and plenty of cleaning liquids and chemicals are found in blackwater. As a result, the water is highly contaminated and could potentially cause disease.

What is greywater?
In simple terms, greywater is blackwater without urine, faeces or food waste. It comes from baths, bathroom sinks and washing machines (for clothes). While it does contain chemicals and cleaning liquids, it’s much more suitable for re-use because it’s not pathogenic.

What is yellow water?
Finally, yellow water is essentially pure urine. It’s urine from specific sources which doesn’t have any of the contaminants found in greywater or blackwater like chemicals, toilet paper, faeces and food particles.

Treating wastewaterBeing a limited resource, once water is used, that doesn’t mean it has to be disposed of completely. Instead, wastewater is treated to remove contaminants so it can be reused. Of course, to be reused, it has to meet certain standards and criteria – depending on the nature of reuse.

Article cited from: Environmental Technology

http://tinyurl.com/yyyml9zt 

News/Events 

  1. Waste No Waste: Time to Embrace Biogas
  2. Is Big Gas finally learning to love biogas?
  3. We need to get behind Renewable Natural Gas
  4. Difference between a Turbo and Positive Displacement Blower
  5. The Difference between Methane and Natural Gas
  6. First Dairy Biogas Project in Connecticut
  7. Does Renewable Natural Gas Have a Future in Energy?
  8. Biogas Offtake Opportunities For Digesters
  9. Wisconsin Dairy Begins Production of Renewable Natural Gas
  10. Anaerobic Digestion Sector Forming a Clearer Picture
  11. Brightmark to Expand Western New York Dairy Biogas Project
  12. Biogas - The Energy Wonder That's Under Our Noses
  13. Power Generation Achieved by a Self-Assembled Biofuel Cell
  14. Less Carbon Dioxide from Natural Gas
  15. Project Uses Renewable Electricity for RNG Production
  16. Smithfield Hog Farm Provides Natural Gas to Missouri City
  17. From Waste to Gas
  18. Gas Clash Threatens Australian Export
  19. Maximizing Opportunities of Anaerobic Digestion from Wastewater
  20. Catalyst to Speed up Conversion of Biomass to Biofuel
  21. How It Works: Ethanol
  22. Anaerobic Digestion - the Next Big Renewable Energy Source
  23. Anaerobic Additions
  24. Three (3) Tech Solutions for Modern Landfills
  25. The Costs and Benefits of Anaerobic Digesters
  26. Bacteria Farts Power Wastewater Plant in Fort Wayne
  27. Europe’s First Poultry Manure Biogas Plant
  28. Electricity Using Pig Manure
  29. $38-Million Biodigester coming to Grand Rapids
  30. Biochar Could Benefit Anaerobic Digestion of Animal Manure

For additonal reading, please visit us at: News Worthy

Difference between a Turbo and Positive Displacement Blower