Adsorption with Biochar or Activated Carbon as Treatment Processes for Greywater Reuse

Nearly 3 billion people experience water scarcity in their watershed for at least one month every year. Population growth, urbanization, and global climate change are increasing the severity of water scarcity in many areas. Decentralized reuse of greywater from showers, baths, and bathroom sinks could reduce residential water demand by 35% and urban water demand by 15%. Decentralized greywater reuse could be environmentally sustainable due to less energy for pumping than centralized systems. However, decentralized greywater reuse presents challenges from economies of scale. Biochar can serve as a low-cost, environmentally sustainable alternative to activated carbon (AC) in water treatment. Many studies have explored biochar as a sorbent for surface water or wastewater, but studies about biochar for greywater treatment are limited. The objectives of this study were (1) to compare the performance of biochar and AC for sorption of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in greywater and (2) to determine whether AC or biochar can satisfy greywater treatment regulations alone or in combination with other processes. Jar tests with doses ranges of 0.25 to 4 g/L were used to compare sorbents for DOC removal after various pretreatments. All sorbents were ground to ≤45 µm particle diameter. Five biochars were screened to select the most effective greywater sorbent. These biochars covered a range of production temperatures, feedstocks, and lab- and full-scale production. Wood-based forced draft top lit updraft biochar (FD-TLUD) biochar was found to be the most effective for DOC removal from both real and synthetic greywater. Sorption with FD-TLUD biochar or AC can remove up to 70% or 80% of DOC from greywater, respectively. AC sorption of DOC was only 1-10% greater at each dose from a greywater sample with 11 mg/L DOC than from a greywater sample with 43 mg/L DOC. Coagulation with 30 mg/L alum removed 14% of greywater DOC, and biochar or AC sorption removed similar percentages of DOC from microfiltered or coagulated greywater. UVA254 removal correlated strongly with DOC removal for both AC and biochar (R2=0.89). These results indicate that biochar could be useful component in greywater treatment systems. Future work will focus on sorption after other chemical and biological pretreatments.