Emory University Water Hub

The Emory University Campus Water Hub is an onsite water recycling system that uses hydroponic technology as part of a unique treatment process. The system is capable of recycling up to 400,000 gallons of water per day, which will reduce the amount of drinking water the university will draw from the Atlanta municipal water supply by up to 146 millions gallons a year.

The Water Hub includes a 50,000 gallon underground storage tank used for process make up water by the campus’ three central chiller plants and steam plant. Future use for the recycled water will include toilet flushing.

The treatment system design by Sustainable Water comprise innovative and proven processes for collecting, treating and distributing the water to different locations across the campus. After the wastewater is screened, comprise a moving bed bioreactor (MBBR) for removing carbonaceous material and to strip odorous gases . The use of hydroponic reactors at the next stage of the treatment is what makes the system unique. The hydroponic reactors consist of various vegetation and plants contained within an aesthetically pleasing greenhouse that reduce the remaining BOD and complete the nitrification process. sing in a greenhouse format.

The water then goes through the final polishing procedure using a disc filter and is disinfected by Aquionics UV technology and then passes into the underground storage tank ready for reuse.

The Aquionics InLine 400+ UV system implemented at the campus contains four medium pressure UV lamps that provide a 3-log reduction of fecal coliforms, achieves the discharge requirement of 23 fc/100 ml. and produces a non detectable effluent discharge limit.

UV Design Parameters

• Flow = 280 gpm
• Total Suspended Solids < 3 mg/l
• UV Transmittance > 60%
• Dose = 40 mJ/cm2
• Influent Count < 23,000 fc/100 ml
• Effluent Discharge < 23 fc/100 ml