Pilot 4 – RBC followed by sandfilter

Location: Mumbai (Maharashtra)
Pilot Leaders: CENTA/NITIE

Water challenge in this location: The principal water challenges are related with: (i) scarcity of water as the water resources are far away from the city and demand-supply gap is increasing, (ii) space constraint for STP installation; need for compact plant design, (iii) Efficient sewage treatment is essential for promoting safe water reuse (iv) use of fresh water (surface and groundwater) for irrigation purposes (v) potential reuse of treated wastewater in the irrigation of current and new plots of land, thus, improving the living conditions of the population (access to safe food).

Benefits of the technology: The combination of robust and compact technologies for wastewater treatment (RBC and Sand filtration) and for water reclamation (Electrochemical disinfection) guarantees the safe reuse of the treated wastewater for irrigation purposes. Besides, the use of Electromagnetic treatment improves the physicochemical quality of the water that leads to an enhanced crops’ production. Further, as the RBC is closed tank aeration, it will be odourless. It will be able to handle shock load due to better aeration. It is cost effective. It will require minimal civil work and will be an automated process.

Potential for India: RBC is a technology that is compact and scalable and can be installed at land-constrained locations to recycle water at small scale. As outlined earlier there is in general a high demand in India for reliable and robust decentralized wastewater treatment plants.

Scope of replication and upscaling: The plant will be locally constructed with the involvement of BMC. Hence, excellent stakeholder visibility will greatly enhance the scope of replication within India.

Disinfection by means of sand pressure filter plus UV and ultrasound

Location: Burhanpur (Madhya Pradesh)
Pilot Leaders: CENTA/CEMDS/NITIE

Water challenge in this location: An existing WWTP will be upgraded with a tertiary treatment.

Benefits of the technology: The aim is to provide a sustainable and robust tertiary treatment train which can be easily employed in the upgrading of obsolete existing STP or new ones. The combination of UV-LED lamps (lower energy costs) and chlorination guarantees the safe reuse of the reclaimed water (maintenance chlorination avoids the reactivation of pathogens after the UV- disinfection).

Potential for India: Decentralized wastewater treatment plants that do not provide sufficient treatment to provide safe reuse are very common across India. Therefore, there is a high potential for low cost post treatment systems to enhance effluents of existing treatment plants to be safe for reuse. In particular there is a high demand for agriculture to use safe treated wastewater as more than 60 percent of India’s irrigated agriculture is dependent on groundwater which is depleting fast in many areas. The implementation of low- cost and low O&M treatments for the reuse of treated wastewater in agriculture, such as those included in this pilot action, will significantly contribute to reducing the negative effects derived from overexploitation of conventional resources and the drought on the agricultural sector of India.

Scope of replication/upscaling across India: As the technology will be locally constructed and implemented at an existing wastewater treatment plant there is a large demand for post treatment of existing treatment plants, there is a great potential for replication and up-scaling of this technology.