Civil and Environmental Engineering
Green walls:
An aesthetic approach for greywater treatment and reuse in urban landscapes
Clean water is the essence of life, and its scarcity threatens mankind. The upsurge in urbanization and population growth have further amplified the strain on clean water supply, increasing the need for wastewater treatment and its reuse. Green wall systems are novel on-site technologies for greywater treatment and its reuse that can offer multiple benefits to the environment (cooling, noise isolation, amenity, etc.), while providing reliable alternative water sources. However, the challenge is to critically engineer the green wall systems to remove a wide variety of pollutants, such as pathogens, nutrients, heavy metals, but also xenobiotic organic compounds (XOCs; organic pollutants from anthropogenic source) that are found in greywater due to extensive use of household chemicals (e.g., dyes, detergents, personal care products etc.).
School
Research Area
Water resources | Green technologies | Sustainable technologies | Water sensitive urban design
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The student will work on the established green wall system at the Water Research Laboratory, getting hands-on experience analysing different pollutants in greywater/wastewater. The student will also gain valuable chemical analysis skills at Water Research Centre laboratories.
An improved design of green wall system for the removal of pollutants from greywater.
Papers:
- Prodanovic, V., Hatt, B., McCarthy, D., Zhang, K. and Deletic, A., 2017. Green walls for greywater reuse: Understanding the role of media on pollutant removal. Ecological Engineering 102, 625-635.
- Prodanovic, V., McCarthy, D., Hatt, B. and Deletic, A., 2019. Designing green walls for greywater treatment: The role of plants and operational factors on nutrient removal. Ecological Engineering 130, 184-195.
- Prodanovic, V., Wang, A. and Deletic, A., 2019. Assessing water retention and correlation to climate conditions of five plant species in greywater treating green walls. Water Research 167, 115092.
- Prodanovic, V., Zhang, K., Hatt, B., McCarthy, D. and Deletic, A., 2018. Optimisation of lightweight green wall media for greywater treatment and reuse. Building and Environment 131, 99-107.
- Abd-ur-Rehman, H.M., Deletic, A., Zhang, K. and Prodanovic, V., 2022. The comparative performance of lightweight green wall media for the removal of xenobiotic organic compounds from domestic greywater. Water Research 221, 118774.
YouTube video introducing water treatment green walls: