Chinese University Professor Predicts China Will Adopt "Toilet-to-Tap" Technology in 2010
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 02.23.08
Image courtesy of ES&T
While some Chinese scientists are out advocating for hybrid vehicles and solar energy, others, like Tongji University's Siqing Xia, find themselves in the unenviable position of acting as boosters for less appealing technologies, such as "toilet-to-tap" water treatment. Yet despite the challenge of having to convince China's 1.3b strong population of its merits, it is a task Xia has willingly embraced.
Tasha Eichenseher, who interviewed Xia for the latest issue of ES&T, visited his demonstration-scale 400 L/day treatment plant, which turns one lab building's wastewater into clean water that is used for irrigation and experimental procedures. The collected water is treated in a membrane bioreactor, which uses a combination of membrane and bacterial treatment technologies to filter and clean the water.
After being disinfected, the resulting gray water is either reused in the lab or for landscaping; the rest, after undergoing reverse osmosis and ion exchange treatment, becomes suitable for drinking. His small-scale treatment plant, which is cheap and easy to assemble, would be extremely useful in water-scarce regions.
Until the public is ready to embrace the technology, however, Xia will push on with his efforts to boost the technology; he hopes to have a larger demonstration-scale plant up and running by 2010 for the Shanghai World Expo. With toilet-to-tap finally making some inroads in the U.S. market, we hope it's only a matter of time until it gains heavier traction here and in other populous, resource-intensive countries.
See also: ::Care for a Drink... of Toilet Water?, ::Recycling Water for Drinking, ::WaterSaver Technologies Aqus Uses Sink Greywater for Toilet
This is one of the few signs I have seen that China is facing up to some of the severe problems that they have. The water coming out of that system would doubtless be ten times cleaner than present day tap water in china. It would do well for them to develop a working class that can afford such a thing.
I think they will keep bringing these things to market so they can live in one of the most polluted countries in the world. I'm hoping the next thing will be a electric car.
This technology sounds similar to the one being used at NEWater plants.
http://www.pub.gov.sg/NEWater/
china will be the new world leader in anything. their so many of them.
www. i-guide .ro
This would be fantastic for islands like the Dry Tortugas. Many places that water is shipped into.
Maybe thay could bottle it and sell it to the bottle water crowd.
This is another great application that I hope will be adopted. With the majority of the population moving to the cities (and 30 story apartment buildings), the key will be to get developers behind these technologies.
r
www.china-crossroads.com
I believe they already have a toilet to tap system, they are just adding a filter.