Facilitating Wastewater Treatment for Irrigation and Agriculture in Illinois
Team Members Heading link
- Jonathan Diaz
- Yuzhu Qiu
- Raquel Rivera
- Karina Rosiles
Advisors: Dr. Amid Khodadoust; David Klawitter; Elaine Avgoustakis
Project Description Heading link
Access to clean water for irrigation and agriculture has been a growing issue with climate change and the exponential need for more crops. In order to be able to meet these demands, some unconventional methods have been employed to reclaim water, including the reuse of greywater and treated wastewater. The pollutants found within domestic wastewater that may cause severe harm to the public include pathogens, heavy metals, total suspended solids (TSS), and synthetic organic compounds (SOCs). To prevent potable water from being wasted, reusing and treating wastewater from homes and buildings would save on expenses and would benefit crops.
This study focuses on the city of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. The purpose of the water treatment design is to treat domestic wastewater into greywater and irrigation standards. The crops analyzed in this study were soybeans. The crop will determine the nutrients kept within the treated wastewater. Wastewater treatment to agricultural and irrigation standards would reduce the expenses of farmers by limiting the external source of water to irrigate and using less fertilizers for crops.
The wastewater treatment design in this report was successful in treating the wastewater contaminant levels to the acceptable greywater standards. All cases of treated wastewater are below the allowable turbidity levels, and all pathogens and biosolids were captured. The domestic wastewater was put through four processes, including a granular media sand filter, a sedimentation tank with added carbon adsorption to remove biosolids, and UV radiation to remove pathogens. The surge tank was designed as a storage facility for the greywater to be treated and pumped out to the appropriate irrigation systems. This process is less intensive than treating potable water and will reduce the energy consumption from 20-45 to 10-20 kW/PE*a and reduce CO2 emissions from 36 kg CO2/PE/a to 20-25 kg CO2/PE/a.