Abstract
Greywater is wastewater that produces 50-80% of overall water consumption in a house. In many village houses of Malaysia, the household greywater that comes from kitchen, laundry, bathroom and sinks is usually untreated and discharged directly into streams or rivers. This phenomenon escalates the pollution among Malaysian rivers. This study examines the effects of household greywater treated with locally available peat soil. This study was performed by using a two-stage filter media (i) pretreatment (gravel + sand) (ii) peat based (peat + charcoal + gravel). Effects of filtration on the peat soil were examined via the one-dimensional consolidation test and X-Ray Fluorescence Test (XRF). Removal efficiency of the greywater effluent was found to be TSS- 81%, BOD- 54%, COD – 52% and AN - 87%. pH of the greywater was improved from acidic (4.6) to neutral (6.9). Quality of the treated greywater complied with the limits of the Malaysian Standard (Standard B) for wastewater effluent discharge. The consolidation test was affected and became slower. XRF test indicates that peat soil has an increased amount of the inorganic content of Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) and Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) associated with the absorption of certain elements in greywater. The peat based filter resulted in a substantial removal of pollutants. Further study is needed to look in depth the mechanism of adsorption and its applicability in a large scale processes.
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Dr. Radin Maya Saphira Radin Mohamed is a senior lecturer at Dept. of Water & Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. She did her PhD in Environmental Engineering (Greywater Recycling/Reuse for Irrigation), at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. MEng (Research) in Civil Engineering (Environmental) with thesis titled ‘River Modelling for Water quality in Bekok River’ from College University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia and BSc (Hons) in Industrial Chemistry, University Technology of Malaysia.
Dr. Radin Maya Saphira’s research involves issues related to grey water management and soil qualities as well as their impact on the environment, and the search for practices to improve environmental quality related to contamination by greywater. In the last few years she has extended her research interest on the low-cost and sustainable technology to alleviate the greywater discharge pollution in the house villages. The use of natural sources and local soil are the most resources she interested for and she and her team of research have been conducted several research to fill the gap of research.
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Radin Mohamed, R., Chan, CM., Wurochekke, A. et al. The Use of Natural Filter Media Added with Peat Soil for Household Greywater Treatment. GSTF J Eng Technol 2, 11 (2014). https://doi.org/10.7603/s40707-013-0011-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7603/s40707-013-0011-x