Production of Drinking Water from the Effluents

This project advanced the development of a full-cycle water remediation process, transforming wastewaters into fresh water. Wastewater reclamation and reuse, materialized by further treatment of effluents emerging from wastewater treatment plants, provides a significant source of fresh water for a variety of end-use. Such uses include irrigation, industrial processes, aquifer recharge, or drinking water. The full-cycle water remediation system, developed in this project, results from the combination of an existing wastewater treatment technology that uses physical-chemical processes, including coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation and filtration, and the Dagua technology that uses a combination of ozonation and ultrafiltration membrane processes for the production of drinking water. The combined use of these two technologies removes water pollutants, including organic and inorganic compounds, turbidity, color, emerging contaminants and pathogenic substances, resulting in the production of water of superior quality that will respond to the demands of multiple end-users.  The efficient use of water resources including water reuse practices will provide an important source of fresh water, directly addressing the existing water stress.