February 2010 Meeting “Grey Water Systems”
This meeting was held at 5:45pm on Wednesday February 17th at the offices of URS, level 6 no 1 Southbank boulevard, Southbank (Click here for a map)
Topic: Grey Water Systems
Convenors: Peter Wonfor & Simon Wilson
Guest Speaker: Ken Pepyat (from “Wet Innovations”, a division of Wet Technologies)
Ken discussed his company’s water treatment technology in the context of grey water and further water treatment. A short DVD presentation was shown describing the route the founders of the company travelled to arrive at the latest stage of the technology.
The process uses a number of steps in the purification process including –
* A long flow path in the chamber (up to 6 metres);
* A fractionating process (eg foam at beach edge);
* The use of either ozone or UV to treat the final product
The initial stages use bacteria and aeration, followed by the use of ozone to kill viruses and hardy bacteria. The use of chlorine treatment, sand filters and membranes is avoided. “Black” water can be treated as well.
Ken said Wet Innovations is looking at trial sites for its technology and people might contact him if they were interested. Ken spoke of other units including the “Garden Saver”, and spoke of issues with technologies as they were developed. The ozone generator produced a “cold corona spark” and used either 7 Watts or 14 Watts depending on size and produced a disinfection effect 10000 times stronger than chlorine.
The floor was opened up for questions and the questioners made good use of Ken’s extensive knowledge of water treatment chemistry.
After Ken concluded his presentation Simon and Peter asked for members contributions-
One member spoke of his experiences with the Gator Grey Water system in the Geelong area where he had worked with an Architect who specialized in sustainable design. His information was very useful.
Another member spoke of his own home built system using a variety of materials sourced from his own resources. His feedback was very useful.
All the systems discussed were primarily used for sub-surface irrigation as the formation of aerosols was discouraged for public health reasons.
