Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

Water pinch analysis for an urban system: a case study on the Sultan Ismail Mosque at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
Z.A. Manan*, S.R. Wan Alwi, Z. Ujang
Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Tel. +60 (7) 553-5512; Fax +60 (7) 558-1463; email: zain@fkkksa.utm.my Received 20 January 2005; accepted 18 November 2005

Abstract This paper describes how the water cascade analysis (WCA) technique, based on the pinch analysis concept, was adapted to establish the minimum water targets for the Sultan Ismail Mosque at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The WCA is a numerical alternative to the graphical water targeting technique known as a water surplus diagram. Two cases were analysed using WCA to predict potential savings with reuse as well as with reuse and regeneration. The results were compared with the savings predicted via a conventional water management solution. The conventional system predicted reductions of 25% fresh water and 19.8% wastewater. The WCA technique predicted savings of 65.1% fresh water and 51.5% wastewater with reuse only, and up to 85.5% fresh water and 67.7% wastewater with reuse and regeneration. The WCA technique based on the pinch analysis concept can rapidly yield accurate minimum water targets, pinch-point locations and water allocation targets for an urban water network. Keywords: Pinch analysis; Minimum water targets; Urban system; Water cascade analysis; Regeneration

1. Introduction Water demands are growing every year as the result of the booming world population. A population report on environment and water issues has estimated that more than 2.8 billion people in 48 countries will lack access to adequate water supplies by 2025 [1]. The Middle Eastern countries
*Corresponding author. 0011-9164/06/$ See front matter. Published by Elsevier B.V.

have long relied on non-conventional water supplies due to water scarcity. For example, four Gulf statesBahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirateshave so little fresh water available that they resort to desalination, the costly conversion of seawater into fresh water. Saudi Arabia now must mine fossil groundwater for three-quarters of its water needs. Jordan and Yemen withdraw 30% more water from groundwater aquifers every year than they

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2005.11.003

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

53

replenish. Also, Israels annual water use already exceeds its renewable supply by 15% [2]. Billions of dollars have been spent to expand water supply to an increasing number of consumers in industry and housing estates worldwide. A rapid increase in water tariffs has spurred water conservation efforts, particularly in the industrial sector. It has been reported that industrial water use in some developed countries has been falling as a result of greater efficiency in the use, reuse and recycling of water. For example, industrial water use in England and Wales has fallen by 900 million m3 since the year 1998 [3]. While industries and commercial enterprises have made significant progress in water efficiency, the achievement of the general public has been extremely poor, thereby resulting in urban water demand to increase steadily [4]. This discrepancy can be attributed to low water tariffs and wide availability of potable water in urban areas. Consequently, the general public, particularly the urban population, has little consciousness of water savings and hence, the energy savings associated with water use. The urban sector contributes a significant percentage of water consumption, particularly in developed countries of warmer climates. In Malaysia for example, the domestic sector contributes 60.1% of the total water consumption compared to the other sectors [5]. The need for efficient water management in the urban sector is becoming ever more crucial due to a sharp increase in the price of fresh water. This trend is likely to continue in the near future due to the predicted shortage of fresh water, and hence, the possibilities of resorting to wastewater treatment, desalination, groundwater extraction, and interstate water purchases as well as water transfer. Compared to the extensive amount of work conducted on water minimisation in industry, there has been many fewer efforts towards water conservation in the urban sector. The majority of work on urban water conservation is focused on design of water-saving gadgets and wastewater

recycling. In a water distribution system, it is possible to determine the maximum water recycle flowrate through appropriate water cascading. Note that the maximum water recycle flowrate corresponds to minimum fresh water consumption. The first key step towards minimising fresh water consumption and wastewater generation is to establish the baseline minimum water consumption target prior to the design or retrofit of an urban water network through the notion of water targeting. As far as our search has revealed, there has been no published work related to water targeting for urban water network. The available work on water targeting is exclusively focused on industrial applications [612]. There is a clear need to extend the water targeting technique beyond industrial applications for use in the design and improvement of urban water systems. The next section highlights some of the key developments in pinch analysis related to water targeting. This is followed by a description of how the water cascade analysis technique (WCA) was adapted to establish the minimum water targets for the Sultan Ismail Mosque at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

2. Previous work on water targeting The advent of water pinch analysis (WPA) as a tool for the design of an optimal water recovery network has been one of the most significant advances in the area of water conservation over the last decade. Water pinch analysis is a systematic technique for implementing strategies to maximise water reuse and recycling through integration of water-using activities or processes. Maximising water reuse and recycling can minimise freshwater consumption and wastewater generation. A typical WPA solution has two steps: setting the water targets, followed by network design to achieve the targets. In targeting the minimum utility requirements and in locating the pinch points, a graphical

54

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

technique, such as composite curves, and a numerical technique, such as the problem table, have both been used in heat [7], mass [13,14] and water recovery problems [15,16] that are based on pinch analysis. Why then are both techniques usually used together even though they apparently yield the same information? The answer lies in the complimentary roles they play in pinch analysis. The graphical tool with composite curves is vital in terms of providing an understanding of the overall heat and mass transfer potentials in a process. On the other hand, the numerical targeting tools like problem table analysis (PTA) in heat integration [7] or the composition interval table (CIT) in mass integration [13, 14] are advantageous from the point of view of accuracy and speed, and therefore, are more amenable to computer programming. Note that the majority of researchers have extended the use of composite curves and PTA established for heat recovery based on pinch analysis to mass recovery, and later, to water recovery problems. One of the latest and most widely used water targeting techniques, known as a water surplus diagram [10], is limited in its ability to estimate the minimum water targets as it implements a graphical approach that involves time-consuming trial-and-error steps. This limitation has inspired the development of the water cascade analysis (WCA) technique [12]. WCA is a numerical alternative to the graphical water targeting technique known as the water surplus diagram. The WCA is to the water surplus diagram in WPA as the PTA is to the grand composite curves in heat pinch analysis. By eliminating the tedious iterative steps of the water surplus diagram, the WCA can quickly yield accurate minimum water targets, pinch point locations and water allocation targets for a maximum water recovery (MWR) network, thereby offering a key complimentary role to the water surplus diagram in the synthesis of water network. Unlike the case of the composition interval table, the WCA is not limited to mass transfer-

(a)

(b)

Fig. 1. Non-mass transfer-based water-using operations: (a) reactor that consumes water in aniline production; (b) reactor that produces water as a by-product in acrylonitrile (AN) production.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 2. Two other common types of the non-mass transfer-based water-using operations: (a) cooling tower make up; (b) boiler blow-down.

based operations and is therefore applicable to a wide range of water using operations, including water used as a solvent or a raw material, or withdrawn as a product or a by-product in a chemical reaction, or being utilised as heating or cooling media (see Figs. 1 and 2). This paper describes how the WCA technique was adapted to establish the minimum water and wastewater targets for the Sultan Ismail Mosque at UTM. The targets generated via WCA predict

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

55

significant potential reductions in terms of fresh water and wastewater, far beyond the potential reductions calculated after a detailed water network revamp on the mosque proposed by another research group at UTM [17]. Results of the study show that setting the minimum fresh water and wastewater targets prior to design allow a designer to pinpoint rapidly the design option that satisfies the minimum water targets, thereby saving a considerable amount of resources in detailed evaluation and screening of numerous inferior design options.

Fig. 3. Breakdown of water utilization for SIM.

3. Water minimisation for an urban system: A case study on the Sultan Ismail Mosque, UTM The Sultan Ismail Mosque (SIM) located at UTM, Skudai, was chosen as the case study for this research. This mosque is mainly used by the Muslim students and staff of UTM for prayer and educational activities. Activities which demand water in the mosque include ablution, irrigation, showers, kitchen and toilet services as well as cleaning. A detailed breakdown of the various water demands in SIM is shown in Fig. 3. Fresh water is stored in four inter-connected distribution tanks, each with a volume of 237 m3. These tanks are arranged in a straight line so that fresh water which fills up the first tank overflows into the next tank until all four tanks are filled. The estimated total fresh water consumption for SIM is 11,550 m3/y [18]. Of this, 9178 m3/y is used for ablution and the rest is for toilet flushing, irrigation, cleaning, wash basins and toilet pipes [18]. The total amount of water consumed varies throughout the year between semesters and holidays. During the semester, the amount of water consumed for ablution is about 60 m3/d on Fridays, but only 25 m3/d on other days. In order to estimate a reasonable typical water savings for the mosque, daily water consumption calculations were based on normal semester days [18]. Fig. 4 shows a simplified water distribution

network for the mosque which includes the stream numbers, flowrates and contaminant concentrations. 4. Water recycling scheme for Sultan Ismail Mosque proposed by IEWRM The Institute of Environmental and Water Resource Management (IEWRM), UTM, proposed a water recycling scheme aimed at minimising fresh water consumption for SIM. The retrofitted network design proposed by IEWRM is shown in Fig. 5. IEWRM proposed the idea of reusing treated ablution water and rainwater for the entire mosque except for kitchen services. The ablution water or rainwater were to be filtered for solid particles like hair, stones and dirt before going through a series of treatments using activated carbon and microfiltration processes. The treatment process was to ensure that water being recycled to the distribution tank was of acceptable purity for uses which involve bodily contact. The amount of ablution water reclaimed and rainwater collected was limited by the existing distribution tank. Treated ablution water could only be sent to the last distribution tank. Since the water output was approximately 29.07 te/d for the four tanks, only 7.27 te/d of treated water can be fed into the last distribution tank. The flowrate of 7.27 te/day represented the limiting point or

56

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

Fig. 4. Water distribution network for the Sultan Ismail Mosque.

Fig. 5. Retrofitted water network for the SIM by IWERM.

bottleneck for this system. During the rainy season, rainwater was collected instead and the spent ablution water diverted to the sewer. This design

allowed an estimated fresh water savings of up to 25% with a payback period for investment of about 10 years.

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

57

5. Setting the minimum water targets for the Sultan Ismail Mosque proposed using the water cascade analysis technique For this case study, the biological oxygen demand (BOD) was the most significant water quality factor chosen for water quality analysis for water reuse. Faecal coliform was not selected as the quality factor since regeneration was proposed to enable the greywater to be reused safely. Regeneration consists of three main steps. Firstly, greywater is filtered for particles. Next, it is passed through an activated carbon to remove unpleasant odours. Finally, chlorine or UV is used to disinfect the greywater for storage purposes. Tables 1 and 2 summarise the water demands and sources for SIM. There are eight water demands and six water sources. Water sources are those available for possible recycling while water demands reflect the actual requirements for various water-using processes. Blackwater from toilet flushing and toilet pipes was not used as a water source since it is highly contaminated with urine and faeces while water from irrigation is assumed to be completely absorbed by the soil. Since the Skudai area, in which UTM is located, receives a high average annual rainfall of 2027.2 mm [19], rainwater was harvested and used as one of the water sources for this case study. The data for water demands in Table 1 were adapted from USEPA standards of water reuse [20] (Table 3), and data for water sources in Table 2 were based on the data by [21] (Table 4) and [22] (Table 5). CSBE [21] has conducted quality tests on ablution greywater collected from the King Abdullah Mosque. In this paper, it was assumed that wash basin greywater and ablution greywater were of similar quality, i.e., 23 ppm. Janikowski [22] collected data on typical pollutant concentrations for stormwater in Eastern Europe. The BOD for rainwater was used as a guideline for this case study.

Table 1 Summary of the water demands for Sultan Ismail Mosque Stream Demands description D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 Kitchen Ablution Wash basin Showering Mosque cleaning Irrigation Toilet pipes Flushing toilet Flowrate (t/d) 0.03 25.03 0.14 0.14 0.29 1.46 0.44 1.57 BOD conc., (ppm) 0 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

Table 2 Summary of the water sources for Sultan Ismail Mosque Stream Sources description S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Rainwater Ablution Wash basin Showering Mosque cleaning Kitchen Flowrate (t/d) 11.14 25.03 0.14 0.14 0.29 0.03 BOD conc., (ppm) 10 23 23 216 472 536

Table 3 shows that the USEPA sets conservative water quality standards for the BOD level to be reduced to at least 10 ppm for non-potable domestic water recycling. Non-potable water refers to water that is not used for human consumption. Since all the water usage after the distribution tank in the mosque is non-potable water, a maximum BOD limit of 10 ppm was set for the water demands. A BOD value of 0 ppm was set for kitchen water demand. The mosque case study is, strictly speaking, a batch process since all the water-using activities occur in discrete time periods. However, in this case, it is possible to use the WCA [23] technique developed for a continuous process to establish minimum fresh water consumption and waste-

58

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

Table 3 Summary of water quality standards and criteria suitable for domestic water recycling [20] Total colifrom count/100 ml Bathing water standardsa USA, NSF USA, EPA Australia UK (BSIRA) Japan WHO Germany
a

Faecal coliforms 2000 (m) 100 (g) <240 <4 <10 500

BOD (mg/l) 45 10 20 10 20

Turbidity (NTU) 90 2 2 5 12

Cl2 residual (mg/l) 1

pH 69 69 69 69

10, 000 (m) 500 (g) Non-detectable <1 Non-detectable <10 1000 (m) 200 (g) 100

Suggested as appropriate for domestic water recycling. (g), guideline; (m), mandatory. Table 4 Results of water quality tests conducted on greywater collected from the ablution at the King Abdullah Mosque [21] Parameter EC (dS/m) pH Chloride, Cl (mg/l) Sodium, Na (mg/l) SAR Faecal coliforms (MPN/100 ml) BOD (mg/l) Boron (mg/l) Concentration before filtration 0.84 7.2 0.12 52.1 3.5 700 23 0.53 Concentration after filtration 0.77 7.6 0.18 49.0 1.4 2 4 0.38 JS 893/1995 for irrigation of cooked vegetables 6.09.0 350 230 9.0 1000 150 1.0 JS 893/1995 for irrigation of fruit trees 6.09.0 350 230 9.0 150 1.0

Table 5 Typical pollutant concentrations in stormwater in Eastern Europe [22] Pollutant conc., Rainwater (mg/l) Suspended solids COD BOD 5 Chlorides Oil products Snowmelt Street wash water

water generation targets. The availability of storage and fixed patterns of water utilisation allow the mosque case study to be modelled as a repeated batch process that approaches a continuous system.

5016,000 5706,580 308,300 24260 10285 1035 224 33250 5270 351,600 3572 35280 6225 1137 272

6. Water targeting using WCA: methodology and results of the case study A systematic methodology for water minimisation using the WPA technique is shown in

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

59

Fig. 6. A three-step procedure for water minimisation in a new building.

Fig. 6. This methodology is not only applicable to mosques but also to other types of buildings like households, hotels, faculty buildings, and offices. First, a total building review is carried out to have a good understanding of the initial water plumbing and sanitation of the building. Next, data acquisition and extraction are conducted by surveying the water flowrate and contaminant concentration at the source and at the discharge. With these data, the process flow diagram of the initial water network can be obtained. Subsequently, WCA is constructed to achieve the true minimum target for the water network. Finally, a new water network is designed before the economic analysis is carried out to show the total savings of the new water network. 6.1. Water cascade analysis technique The main objective of the WCA is to establish minimum water targets, i.e., the overall fresh water requirement and wastewater generation for a process after looking at the possibility of using the available water sources within a process to meet its water demands. To achieve this objective, one has to establish the net water flowrate as

well as the water surplus and deficit at the different water purity levels within the process under study. The interval water balance table has been introduced for this purpose. The mosque case study described in the previous section is used to illustrate the WCA water targeting technique. The first step in the WCA is to set up the interval water balance table (Table 6) to determine the net water source or water demand at each purity level. The first column of Table 6 contains the contaminant concentration levels (C) arranged in ascending order. Each concentration level is expressed in terms of the water purity (P) in the second column. With the concentration of pure water set at 1 million ppm, the fraction of pure water in a contaminated stream, or the water purity, can be expressed as [10]: (1) where C is the contaminant concentration in ppm. The number of purity intervals (n) equals the number of water demands (ND) and the number of water sources (NS) minus any duplicate purity (NDP): (2) Application of Eq. (2) to the SIM case study yields six purity levels. Next, the water purity difference (P) in column 3 of Table 6 is calculated as the difference between purity level at intervals k and k + 1, as follows: (3) Columns 4 and 5 contain the total flowrates for the water demands ( ) and water sources ( ) at their corresponding purity levels. The flowrate of water demand is fixed as negative, and the water source positive. These flowrates are summed up at each purity level to

60

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

Table 6 Interval water balance table for the Sultan Ismail Mosque Column no. 1 Interval, n 1 10 2 23 3 216 4 472 5 536 6 1,000,000 0 0.999464 0.999464 0.999528 0.000064 0.03 0.03 Source 0.999784 0.000256 0.29 0.29 Source 0.999977 0.000193 0.14 0.14 Source 0.999990 0.000013 25.17 25.17 Source Concentration Cn (ppm) 0 2 Purity, Pn 1.000000 0.000010 !9.07 11.14 !17.93 Demand 3 P 4 D, j (te/d) !0.03 5 S,i (te/d) 6 D, j + S,i (te/d) !0.03 7 Net water source/ demand Demand

(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 7. (a) Water cascade diagram with an assumed fresh water flowrate of 0 kg/s. (b) Pure water cascade is used to check the feasibility of the water cascade. (c) Interval fresh water demand to determine the fresh water amount needed in each purity interval.

give the net interval water flowrate, ( , column 6); (+) represents the net water source, (!) the net water demand (column 7).

The next key step in the WCA is to establish the fresh water and wastewater targets for the process. In doing so, it is important to consider both the water flowrate balance and the concen-

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

61

(a)

(b)

Fig. 8. Principle of water cascading.

tration driving force (water purity) so that the true minimum water targets can be obtained. The water flowrate balance involves using the water cascade diagram (Fig. 7) to get the cumulative net water source/demand for a process (FC). A conceptual illustration of how water cascading can minimise fresh water needs and wastewater generation is represented by Fig. 8. In Fig. 8(a), 100 kg/s of wastewater is produced by a water source at the purity level of 0.999900 (100 ppm) and 50 kg/s water is needed by a water demand at the purity level of 0.999800 (200 ppm). Without considering water reuse, 100 kg/s of wastewater would be generated while 50 kg/s of fresh water would be required. However, as shown in Fig. 8(b), by making use of 100 kg/s of the water source at the purity level of 0.999900 (100 ppm) to satisfy the water demand of 50 kg/s at the purity level of 0.999800 (200 ppm), it is possible to avoid sending part of the water source directly to effluent (at P = 0.999900). Doing so not only reduces the wastewater generation but also the fresh water consumption, in both cases by 50 kg/s. For the water cascade diagram in Fig. 7(a), a fresh water flowrate (FFW) of 0 te/d is assumed. Here, the net water demand of !0.03 te/d at the first purity level is cascaded to the second purity level to meet another water demand of !17.93 te/d, giving a cumulative net of !17.96 te/d (demand). This cumulative demand

meets only net water sources down the next four purity levels to yield a cumulative water source, or wastewater flowrate (FWW), of 7.67 te/d at the lowest purity level of the water cascade diagram. The cumulative net water source/demand for the process (FC) at each purity interval forms the net interval water cascade diagram. The water cascade diagram is similar to the interval heat balance table for the PTA in heat integration [7] and the table of exchangeable loads for CIT in mass integration [15]. The water cascade diagram depicting the preliminary water balance (i.e., with FFW = 0 te/d) is essential as a basis to generate a feasible water cascade, and ultimately, the true minimum water targets. Note again that, in addition to considering the water flowrate balance, the true minimum targets can only be realised by also taking into account the pure water surplus or deficit, which is a product of the cumulative net water source/ demand (FC) and the purity difference (P) across two purity levels (Fig. 7b). A pure water surplus (+) means that water is available with purity higher than what is required in this region. On the other hand, a pure water deficit (!) means that water of higher purity than those available is required [10]. Cascading the pure water surplus/ deficit down the purity intervals yields the pure water cascade that represents the cumulative amount of pure water surplus/deficit (Fig. 7b). The cumulative pure water surplus/deficit at each

62

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

(a)

(b)

Fig. 9. (a) Water surplus diagram that shows insufficient pure water in a network. (b) Fresh water flowrate is increased until the surplus diagram becomes pinched.

purity level is a numerical representation of the water surplus diagram introduced by Hallale [10]. Notice that for the pure water cascade in Fig. 7b, cumulative pure water deficits are observed from second to third purity levels (P2 and P3). The deficits on the pure water cascade, which correspond to the negative region of Hallales water surplus diagram (Fig. 9a) [10], indicate that the pure water cascade is infeasible. These deficits mean that there is insufficient fresh water in the network and are the result of assuming a zero fresh water flowrate (FFW) during water cascading. Thus, additional fresh water should be supplied to remove all pure water deficits and yield a feasible pure water cascade.

Fresh (or pure) water is to be supplied at the highest purity level. To minimise fresh water, it is necessary to determine the minimum flowrate of fresh water, or, the interval fresh water demand that will satisfy the total water requirement at each purity level. The interval fresh water demand restores a feasible pure water cascade throughout the water network. Fig. 7(c) shows that the interval fresh water demand (FFW, k) for each purity level k is obtained by dividing the cumulative pure water surplus/deficit by the purity difference between the fresh water supply (PFW) and purity level (Pk) of interest, as follows: (4)

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

63

Fig.10. Feasible water cascade for the SIM case study.

Referring to Fig. 7(c), a negative value for FFW, k means that there is insufficient fresh water where as a positive FFW, k means that there is excess fresh water at the purity level k. In order to ensure that there is sufficient fresh water at all points in the network, a fresh water flowrate (FFW) of exactly the same magnitude as the absolute value of the largest negative FFW, k should be supplied at the highest purity level of a feasible water cascade (Fig. 10). The FFW,4 of !10.16 te/d is found at the third purity level (P3) of the cumulative fresh water cascade in Fig. 7(c) as the largest negative FFW,k. This quantity of fresh water is added at the highest purity level of the feasible water cascade in Fig. 10. Note that a feasible water cascade is the one that results in a positive or at least a zero cumulative pure water surplus value in the pure water cascade. The feasible water cascade yields the true minimum fresh water (FFW) and wastewater flowrate (FWW) targets of 10.16 te/d and 17.83 te/d, respectively, for the mosque case study.

At the third purity level (P3 = 0.999977; Ck = 23 ppm) of Fig. 10 where there is zero cumulative pure water surplus, there exists the pinch for the mosque problem. The pinch is the most constrained part of the network that results in maximum water recovery. The detailed network design proposed by Castro et al. [15] confirmed the utility targets for this case study. Note that through the WCA, we have obtained the utility targets ahead of design and are able to verify whether the proposed initial design [15] achieved the MWR objective for the plant. The water cascade and the pure water surplus cascade diagrams can be integrated with the interval water balance table to form the water cascade table (WCT) (Table 7). Through the WCT, the WCA technique offers two other key advantages over the water surplus diagram in realising the minimum water targets, apart from its power to eliminate tedious iterative steps of water surplus diagram to yield the exact utility targets and the pinch location(s) quickly.

64

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

Table 7 Water cascade table for the Sultan Ismail Mosque case study Interval Conc. n Cn (ppm) 0 1 10 2 23 3 216 4 472 5 536 6 1,000,000 0 0.999464 0.03 0.03 FWW =17.83 17.824789 17.833765 0.999528 0.29 0.29 17.80 0.001139 0.008976 0.999784 0.14 0.14 17.51 0.004484 0.007837 0.999977 25.17 25.17 17.37 0.003353 0.003353 0.999990 !29.07 11.14 !17.93 !7.80 !0.000101 0 (pinch) Purity, Pn FD, j (te/d) FS, i (te/d) FD, j + FC, SFS,i (te/d) (te/d) !0.03 FFW =10.16 10.13 0.000101 0.000101 Pure water Cumulative pure surplus (te/d) water surplus (te/d)

1.000000 !0.03

The first key advantage is that the WCT clearly displays both the minimum fresh water (FFW) and wastewater flowrate (FWW) targets in the cumulative net water source/demand (FC) column (see, for example, Table 7). Note that in the case of the water surplus diagram, only the minimum fresh water target is known. However, the value of the minimum wastewater flowrate target is not available from the diagram. The second key advantage of using WCT is that it enables a designer clearly to identify the pinch-causing stream and the exact water allocation for the regions above and below the pinch to achieve the minimum water targets during network design. Hallale [10] reported that a pinch always occurs at the purity of a source, and is the point where the source switches from being below a demand (i.e., deficit) to being above a demand (i.e., surplus). Referring to Table 7, a zero cumulative pure water surplus at the purity level of 0.999977 (P3) represents the pinch point. Note that the pinch-causing stream(s) which exists at this purity level is the water source ( ) with a total flowrate of 25.17 te/d.

Referring to Table 2, this stream originated from two water sources, i.e., the ablution (S2) and wash basin (S3). In order to realise the pinch point and to achieve the MWR objective, a portion of the pinch-causing source stream (in this case, the ablution and wash basin) has to be allocated to a process above the pinch, while the rest to a process below the pinch during network design. The exact water allocation is available from the WCT. Referring to the cumulative net water source (FC) column of Table 7, out of 25.17 te/d water source from ablution and wash basin, 7.8 te/d of water (found between P2 and P3) must be sent to the region above the pinch (negative sign indicates sending water across driving force). On the other hand, 17.37 te/d of water (found between P3 and P4) must be sent to the region below the pinch. The exact water allocation flowrates can be readily verified with any detailed network design techniques for non-mass transfer-based waterusing processes, e.g., a source sink mapping diagram [15,24,25] or sink-source allocation [10,26].

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

65

Such important insights on pinch-causing stream and water allocation are evident from the WCT but are not available from the graphical technique of the water surplus diagram. With the water surplus diagram, it is necessary to construct the balanced composite curve in order to obtain the exact water allocation targets [10]. The systematic technique of WCA has made it easy to be programmed into a new computer software called Water-MATRIX. This software was developed by the Process Systems Engineering Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, UTM [23] and is able to eliminate the tedious iterative steps involved during the construction of water surplus diagrams. 7. Water regeneration using WCA Making appropriate changes to a process has been widely accepted as an effective measure to reduce utility targets further in heat and mass integration [7,15]. The same principle applies to WPA. Two possible scopes for process changes to reduce the water targets further, and hence water consumption, include water regeneration and equipment (hardware) modifications. Water regeneration involves the partial or total upgrading of water purity using purification techniques such as wastewater treatment like microfiltration, greenhouse filters, sand filters with reeds, multi-media filters and biofilters. The regenerated water can either be reused in other water-using processes or recycled to the same process to reduce further water consumption and wastewater generation. To increase water availability, Hallale [10] proposed the use of water composite curves and the pinch purity to guide the regeneration of water sources as follows: 1. Regeneration above the pinch: water source(s) in the region above the pinch are partially treated to upgrade its purity. 2. Regeneration across the pinch: water source(s) in the region below the pinch are par-

tially treated to achieve purity higher than the pinch purity. 3. Regeneration below the pinch: water source(s) in the region below the pinch are partially treated to upgrade its purity. However, the resulting water source is still maintained below the pinch. Note that regeneration above and across the pinch reduces the fresh water consumption and wastewater generation while regeneration below the pinch only reduces wastewater generation. The main problem of dealing with process changes is that an assessment of the impact of changes involves repetitive calculations to revise the utility targets and relocate the pinch. Such tasks can be quite cumbersome in the absence of an efficient targeting tool. The WCA has managed to overcome this problem through the introduction of the WCT, which is very amenable to computer programming. Table 7 shows the pinch concentration for the mosque process located at 23 ppm. One possible option of regenerating the water source is to treat the ablution water to a concentration above the pinch. Ahn et al. [27] proposed treating domestic wastewater using microflitration to reduce the contaminant concentration of BOD from 59 ppm to 4.2 ppm and also other contaminant concentrations (Table 8) suitable for reuse. The amount of ablution to be treated depends on the cost of the treatment equipment. An analysis of the relationship between treatment equipment cost and flowrate must be established to know the amount of water needed to be treated that has an appropriate payback period. The total amount of ablution water to be treated using microfiltration is set to 7.27 te/d based on the IEWRM case study. Table 9 from the WCT shows the new pinch purity at 0.999977 (23 ppm), and the fresh water and wastewater flowrates reduced to 4.22 te/d and 11.89 te/d, respectively. The net-work design by El-Halwagi [15] confirmed these targets.

66

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

Table 8 Water quality of influent and effluent [27] Items Influence Range COD, mg/L BOD, mg/L TOC, mg/L SS, mg/L Turbidity, NTU Colour, CU
a

Effluent Average Range 301 71 8.10.4 20 4.20 322 Average 8.8 4.2 3.8 0.2 0.15 10

Removal Standard for reusea efficiency, % Toilet flushing 92.8 92.9 65.8 99.8 99.4 76.2 <10 <5b Sprinkling Landscape <10 <5b <10 <10b

62210 122 11025 59 22.62.8 11.1 6455 91 1232.7 24.3 1095 42

Related to Article 3 in the regulation of public water works. Unit degree.

Table 9 WCT for process involving partial regeneration of ablution water Interval n Conc., Cn (ppm) 0 1 4.2 2 10 3 23 4 216 5 472 6 536 7 1,000,000 0 0.999464 0.03 0.03 FWW = 11.89 11.885539 11.891467 0.999528 0.29 0.29 11.86 0.000759 0.005928 0.999784 0.14 0.14 11.57 0.002962 0.005169 0.999977 17.90 17.90 11.43 0.002206 0.002206 0.999990 !29.07 11.14 !17.93 -6.47 -0.000084 0 (PINCH) 0.999996 7.27 7.27 11.46 0.000066 0.000084 Purity, Pn FD, j (te/d) FS, i (te/d) FD, j + FC (te/d) FS,i (te/d) !0.03 FFW = 4.22 4.19 0.000018 0.000018 Pure water Cumulative pure surplus (te/d) water surplus (te/d)

1.000000 !0.03

Designing a water network that reuses wastewater is needed due to the shortage of fresh water and rising cost of wastewater treatment. Reusing, regenerating, and regeneration and reuse wastewater reduce fresh water consumption and wastewater generation. Wastewater can

be reused directly in other water-using operations if the level of contaminants does not interfere with the water-using operation. This reduces both wastewater and fresh water volumes without changing the mass load of contaminants.

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268

67

8. Comparison of results from IEWRM and water cascade analysis The system proposed by IEWRM predicted a fresh water savings of 25% and wastewater reductions of 19.8%. The system suggested by the water pinch method predicts 65.1% fresh water savings and 51.5% wastewater reduction before regeneration and 85.5% fresh water and 67.7% of wastewater reduction after regeneration. With regeneration, both the IEWRM and the water pinch methods use microfiltration treatment, hence the payback period will almost be the same except for the additional piping system. However, the water pinch method gives much better fresh water savings. Say, in the worst case scenario, there is no rainwater due to a drought season. Omitting rainwater as a source and going through the same calculation using the water cascade table with partial regeneration of ablution water, as previously, a potential fresh water saving of 63.9% and wastewater reduction of 72.5% are targeted. This is still better than the system proposed by IEWRM. WPA can target the minimum fresh water and wastewater flows before design while the IEWRM method needs to design the system first before knowing the total fresh water and wastewater savings. With WPA, one can efficiently and systematically plan water savings for buildings, and above all, are able to identify inferior design options a priori. Knowing the targets and the maximum potential savings ahead of design is indeed a crucial guideline in order to determine the best possible design that can yield the most efficient network. Without these design targets, a designer is unaware of the potential savings until a recycling network is constructed. 9. Conclusions A new method to determine the minimum water and wastewater targets for water-using

processes, the WCA, has been developed. WCA is a numerical technique that can quickly yield accurate water targets and pinch-point locations for a water network. By eliminating the tedious iterative steps of the water surplus diagram, WCA offers a key complimentary role to the water surplus diagram in the design and retrofit of a water recovery network. The WCA technique was sucessfully implemented to assist the retrofit of a water network for the Sultan Ismail Mosque at UTM. From the methodology developed, fresh water consumption was reduced by 85.5% and 67.7% wastewater production, respectively, in the case study. Results of the study show that setting the minimum fresh water and wastewater targets prior to design allows a designer rapidly to pinpoint design options that satisfy the minimum water targets, thereby saving a considerable amount of resources in detailed evaluation and screening of numerous inferior design options.

References
[1] D. Hinrichsen, B. Robey, A.M. Upadhyay and U.D. Upadhyay, Population reports, Center for Communication Programs, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, Vol. 26, No 1, 1998. [2] M. McCarthy, Water scarcity could affect billions: Is this the biggest crisis of all? Independent UK, 2003. [3] N.J.D. Graham, Improving sustainability and quality in urban drinking water supplies, Urban Water, International Conference on Sustainable Development and Green Entrerprises, Macau, G.E., 2001. [4] C. Cheng, Study of the inter-relationship between water use and energy conservation for a building, Energy Building, 34 (2002) 261266. [5] The Malaysian Water Association, Malaysia Water Industry Guide, 2001, p. 62. [6] Y.P. Wang and R. Smith, Wastewater minimisation, Chem. Eng. Sci, 49 (1994) 9811006. [7] B. Linhoff, D.W. Townsend, D. Boland, G.F. Hewitt, B.E.A. Thomas, A.R. Guy and R.H. Marshall, A user guide on process integration for the efficient use of energy, IChemE, Rugby, UK, 1982.

68

Z.A. Manan et al. / Desalination 194 (2006) 5268 Environmental and Water Resource Management, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 2000, pp. 3335. K. Yusoff, Rainwater harvesting system in UTM Skudai Campus. Akademi Tentera Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 2000. O.R. Al-Jayyousi, Greywater reuse: towards sustainable water management, Desalination, 156 (2003) 181192. Center for the Study of the Build Environment (CSBE), A Report on graywater reuse in Jordan, http://www.csbe.org [accessed January 2004], 2003. R. Janikowski, Sourcebook of alternative technologies for fresh water augumentation in East and Central Europe, UM Environment Programme, 2000. Z.A. Manan, B.L. Ooi, F.Y. Lim and C.Y. Foo, HeatMATRIX a computer software for the reduction of energy and water in process plants. 31st Int. Exhibition of Invention, New Techniques and Products of Geneva, Switzerland, 2003. R.F. Dunn and H. Wenzel, Process integration design methods for water conservation and wastewater reduction in industry, Part 1: Design for single contaminant, Clean Product Processes, 3 (2001) 307 318. R.F. Dunn and H. Wenzel, Process integration design methods for water conservation and wastewater reduction in industry, Part 3: Experience of Industrial Application, Clean Technol. Environ. Policy, 4 (2002) 1625. R. Vaidyanathan, T.Wilks, V. Manousiouthakis and S. Wilson, Cost-effective design of clean chemical processes by the application of mass integration tools, Hydrocarbon Process., 77(4) (1998) 79-84. K. Ahn and K. Song, Treatment of domestic wastewater using microfilitration for reuse of wastewater, Desalination, 126 (1999) 714.

[8] V.R. Dhole, N. Ramchandani, R.A. Tainsh and M. Wasilewski, Make your process water pay for itself, Chem. Eng., 103 (1996) 100103. [9] M. Sorin and S. Bdard, The global pinch point in water reuse networks, Trans. IChemE, Part B, 77 (1999) 305308. [10] N. Hallale, A new graphical targeting method for water minimisation, Adv. Environ. Res., 6(3) (2002) 377390. [11] M.M El-Halwagi, F. Gabriel and D. Harell, Rigorous graphical targeting for resource conservation via material recycle/reuse networks, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 42 (2003) 43194328. [12] Z.A. Manan, C.Y. Foo and Y.L. Tan, Targeting the minimum water and wastewater flowrates using the new Water Cascade Analysis Technique, AIChE J., 50(12) (2004) 31693183. [13] M.M. El-Halwagi and V. Manousiouthakis, Synthesis of mass exchange networks, AIChE J., 35(8) (1989) 12331244. [14] M.M. El-Halwagi, Pollution Prevention Through Process Integration: Systematic Design Tools, Academic Press, San Diego, 1997. [15] P. Castro, H. Matos, M.C. Fernandes and C.P. Nunes, Improvements for mass-exchange networks design, Chem. Eng. Sci., 54 (1999) 16491665. [16] J.G. Mann and Y.A. Liu, Industrial Water Reuse and Wastewater Minimisation, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1999. [17] S.R. Wan Alwi, Z.A. Manan and Z. Ujang, Systematic technique for water minimization in urban water system using water pinch analysis, Paper presented at Asia Water Conference, 2004. [18] Z. Ujang and M. Larsen, Development of mass balance and quantitative inventory of water management in UTM Skudai Campus for reclamation and reuse program, Research VOT 71498, Institute of

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]