Possibilities of heat energy recovery from greywater systems

Faculty of Building Services, Hydro and Environmental Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 20 Nowowiejska Street, 00-653 Warsaw, Poland

^* Corresponding author: kaja.niewitecka@pw.edu.pl

Abstract

Waste water contains a large amount of heat energy which is irretrievably lost, so it is worth thinking about the possibilities of its recovery. It is estimated that in a residential building with full sanitary fittings, about 70% of the total tap water supplied is discharged as greywater and could be reused. The subject of the work is the opportunity to reuse waste water as an alternative source of heat for buildings. For this purpose, the design of heat exchangers used in the process of greywater heat recovery in indoor sewage systems, public buildings as well as in industrial plants has been reviewed. The possibility of recovering heat from waste water transported in outdoor sewage systems was also taken into consideration. An exemplary waste water heat recovery system was proposed, and the amount of heat that could be obtained using a greywater heat recovery system in a residential building was presented. The work shows that greywater heat recovery systems allow for significant savings in preheating hot tap water, and the rate of cost reimbursement depends on the purpose of the building and the type of installation. At the same time, the work shows that one should adjust the construction solutions of heat exchangers and indoor installations in buildings to the quality of the medium flowing, which is greywater.