Recycling wastewater into potable water
Adopting more advanced technologies, such as integrated power and water plants which can often be reasonably compact – about the size of two or three low-rise buildings – cities can become efficient and capable of recycling wastewater into potable water. As well as running on renewable power sources like solar energy – which are environmentally beneficial to reduce carbon emissions – they emit no odour and each plant can serve between 100 and 1,000 buildings, depending on the buildings’ sizes and resident populations. Countering the traditionally large, centralised water plants with segregated functions, this local, integrated arrangement can make it possible to achieve a variety of things: like directing unused electricity or heat from a power system to running a wastewater system or using wastewater to cool a power generating system. Over 4,000 integrated power and water systems already exist in the U.S., China, and other countries, particularly across Europe and Canada. Private corporations and universities have already seen significant energy efficiency gains after adopting some form of the approach – as seen in Stanford University.