WASTEWATER TREATMENT & REUSE

WATER SMART RESIDENTIAL ESTATE:

FULL RECOVERY AND

REUSE OF WASTEWATER
By Parnika Shrivastava

The Terra
installed at the
1200 residential
unit campus,
OMAXE Hills
II - Faridabad,
recovers
500,000 liters
per day of
treated water.

Figure 1: Purchase of Tankers Liters Per Day

Background Challenge system, The Terra - Bio Remediation with

Indias prestigious developer, OMAXE proactively
aimed to become zero discharge deploying an
eco-friendly, natural and low energy intensive
process to recover wastewater and reuse high
quality treated water. Its 1200 residential unit
campus, OMAXE Hills II is spread across Aravalli
range in Surajkund, Faridabad. Through the
Water SMART Residential approach, the estate
aims to reuse the treated water for non-potable
purposes such as gardening, landscaping, general
cleaning and toilet flushing, thereby reducing
daily operating cost of purchasing lesser fresh
water tankers and saving on disposal of sewage
via tankers and eliminating the cost of pollution
control fines. www.ecosoftt.org
On a daily basis, fresh water tankers were
purchased for general non-potable uses on a 1200
residential unit. The wastewater treatment plant
was outdated and relied on a defunct technology,
hence was abandoned for operational reasons.
Simultaneously, around 20-30 tankers were hired
each day to pump out the wastewater/sewage for
disposal off-site. With various stringent rules and
compliances by pollution regulating authorities,
the management feared fines and other penalties,
in near future.
Solution
ECOSOFTT proposed the unique and innovative
state-of-art used water recovery and treatment
Recirculating Reactors, with a capacity of 500,000
liters per day. It is a patented and low-cost highly
Fast Facts
Project of: OMZXE Hills II
Projects Aim: To make the
wastewater to be reusable for
non-potable purpose
Technology Used: Terra - Bio
Remediation with Recirculating
Reactors

102 December 2016 | EverythingAboutWater www.eawater.com/eMagazine

 Keywords: Biological Wastewater Treatment Process, Wastewater Recovery System, Recirculating Reactors

Figure 2: Disposal of Sewage via Tankers Per Day Figure 3: Figure 4: Reuse of Treated Water Liters Per Day

efficient biological wastewater treatment process,
based on the principle of attached growth of
bacteria/microbes to form a biofilm on natural and
locally sourced media such as boulders, stones,
gravel, sand etc. in combination with high natural
oxygenation.
As the wastewater trickles through the
strategically layered media in the bioreactor,
microbes in the biofilm digest organics and
nutrients from the wastewater. The low loading
applied to the bioreactor results in operation
well into the endogenous growth phase where
the microbes themselves form part of the food
supply. This results in a sustained population of
microbes and thereby allows no accumulation
of solids in the bioreactor. A small amount of
unconsumed suspended solids is discharged with
the treated effluent. The design of the system
eliminates the need for chemicals while also
minimizing odor from the treatment process. The
solution designed and tailor-made for OMAXE
utilized the existing structures in the basement
and integrated ECOSOFTTs technology, the Terra
delivering extremely high quality treated water.
The major advantages of the TERRA include very
low operating cost, low energy and no sludge
generated from the process. The purchase of
fresh water tankers per liter day have drastically
reduced since the installation of ECOSOFTTs
technology TERRA. Also, with decentralized used for gardening landscaping, construction and
installation of wastewater treatment plant, the general cleaning, and 150,000 for toilet flushing
disposal and transportation cost via tankers has through dual plumbing system. There is water
almost zeroed down, as depicted in the Figure 1 supply at a lower cost per cubic meter cost,
& 2. 24x7 all-round the year. With the installation of
wastewater recovery treatment system on-site,
Result the reuse of treated water across the residential
With the recovery rate of over 90% of the TERRA unit for non-potable purposes such as gardening,
installed, the residential campus recovers 500,000 general cleaning, landscaping and toilet flushing
liters per day of treated water shown in Figure 3 has increased multi-fold, as shown in Figure 4.
with excellent effluent water quality parameters, as
enlisted in the below table. The entire wastewater Previously, the sewage was disposed via
recovery system consumes less than 20 kW Units tankers resulting in added overhead cost
per day, since the entire process utilizes natural with transportation and other miscellaneous
aeration and gravity-based filtration. The entire expenses. With no major disruption to the existing
system since being automated with a controlled infrastructure and retro-fitting the system with
panel unit, requires only one operator for minimal ECOSOFTTs technology, there was no commotion/
basic daily checks of 10-15 minutes. dislocation to the current residents. Rather, the
entire residential unit has upgraded to a more
Effluent Water Quality Effluent Permissible environmental friendly space.
Parameter Value Limit (by CPCB)
Not more than
BOD <5 mg/L About the Author
10 mg/L
Parnika Shrivastava is the Environmental
<10 Not more than
COD Engineer for ECOSOFTT.
mg/L 50 mg/L
Not more than ECOSOFTT is an innovative globally-
TSS <2 mg/L
20 mg/L networked Social Enterprise that specializes
Not more than in decentralized and integrated water,
Oil & Grease Nil
10 mg/L wastewater and environmental services. She
has an Engineering degree from Birla Institute of
E.Coli & Coliform Absent Less than 100 Technology & Science - Pilani (BITS Pilani), with
Not more than expertise and passion for water and wastewater
Ammonia as NH3 <2 mg/L treatment.
5 mg/L

To know more about the author and contributor

The entire wastewater recovery system
consumes less than 20 kW Units per day,
since the entire process utilizes natural
aeration and gravity-based filtration.
Benefits
The Terra installed at the 1200 residential unit
campus, OMAXE Hills II - Faridabad, recovers
500,000 liters per day of treated water, available
for non-potable purposes with 350,000 liters
of this case study, you can write to us. Your
feedback is welcome and should be sent at:
mayur@eawater.com. Selected responses will
get a 1-year complimentary subscription of
EverythingAboutWater Magazine.

www.eawater.com/eMagazine December 2016 | EverythingAboutWater 103