Recycling of Wastewater from Car-Washing Facilities for Landscaping Applications

摘要

Water is a valuable and scarce resource in the Middle East. Major share of the potable water supplied to towns and cities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is produced from the desalination process. Desalination process is a very costly process in terms of its cost per liter of water. Besides, desalination process has adverse effects on the marine environments. Regular car-washing in the UAE is necessitated by extreme weather conditions, especially during summer months. In Dubai, water used for car-washing comes from desalination facilities (Dubai Municipality). This paper describes a two stage filter ((1) sand and gravel mix, and (2) activated carbon) that can be used to treat wastewater generated by car-washing facilities. Laboratory investigation was conducted to test the quality of the waste and treated water. Samples were collected from sump tanks and outflow pipes of car-washing facilities. The water samples were tested in the laboratory for the following parameters: (1) TSS, (2) BOD, and (3) COD. The laboratory results have shown significant removal efficiency of all the pollutants targeted and the characteristics of the treated wastewater were found to meeting the standards set by Dubai authorities (Trakhees) for landscaping applications. Future research is directed to improve the output of the filter to make it suitable for commercial applications.