Pilot project manager:
Nolde & Partner (NOL)
Pilot Location:
Berlin (Germany)
Greywater treatment for reuse as service water and in urban farming
Background:
For Nolde & Partner wastewater is not just waste for disposal, but a resource for new water, energy and nutrients. The adequate supply of clean water with high quality is becoming a severe problem in many European cities. If large cities make use of water sources from the surrounding areas, it often affects the availability of water for agricultural purposes in a negative way. With the “Water House”, Nolde & Partner is successfully running a greywater recycling plant in the centre of Berlin (Germany) since 2006. The plant collects the greywater from a residential unit with 250 inhabitants. The treated greywater is fed back into the building and is re-used by the inhabitants for toilet flushing and gardening. The plant is the first of its kind in Germany.
Vision:
The technology for the greywater treatment will be improved and upgraded to a more compact version of the system with lower operating costs as a contracting model. During the FoodE project, the old plant will be dismantled and replaced by a newly developed version, which will integrate all technical and efficiency improvements made during the past 14 years. The new plant will have the capacity of treating 10,000 liters of greywater per day, also providing irrigation water to the connected hydroponic greenhouse. The greywater-treatment plant as well as the hydroponic greenhouse will be open to the public and guided tours will be offered to transfer knowledge on water, energy and nutrients recycling from greywater as well as on this resource-efficient urban food production.
In addition to creating jobs and organizing training and dissemination activities for different stakeholders, the goal is to establish greywater recycling as a safe, sustainable and efficient technology for urban food production and also contribute to mitigating the impacts of climate change on our freshwater resources and environment. One circular farming concept that has already been successfully tested is the roof water-farm greenhouse, which has been using service water for hydroponic plant production since 2014.
In collaboration with FoodE partners:
Nolde & Partner (DE), Institut für Landes- und Stadtentwicklungsforschung gGmbH (DE), Fachhochschule Sudwestfalen (DE), Wageningen University & Research (NL), Università di Bologna (IT) and Polar Permaculture Solutions AS (NO)
