(87e) Designing a Comprehensive Water Recycling System on a Major College Campus

Water is wasted on the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Campus and water bills are increasing as a result of this waste, combined with inflation, which causes tuition costs, building fees, and other pertinent expenditures of attending/working at UAB to increase. Comprehensive water recycling systems are being used on some college campuses as a means to combat this waste, but their use is not yet widespread. Little research has been done on the scale of such systems and how it affects recycle rates, as well as the chemical composition of recycled water and acceptable usage. What is to follow is an investigative review of what has been done on other campuses and similar institutions, as well as an in-depth look at the design of a system on a nearby campus, Emory University in Atlanta. Once that design has been investigated, a cost/benefit analysis may commence at the UAB campus in order to determine the optimal scale of the system for the price of establishment versus water savings. Also key contaminants in reclaimed water present around UAB that may or may not be present around Emory will be identified and their concentration measured through comprehensive laboratory procedures, which will involve the use of “blank” and “spiked” samples, as well as experimental replication.  Finally, the following deliverables will be desired: Optimized cost of the system for the maximum benefit to UAB; and background concentration of chemicals in the finished project.  With respect to the presentation I plan to give at the 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting, the goal is to present a series of vital schematics for the system at Emory University, and then to apply those schematics, with projected optimized cost and benefit, to the UAB Campus.