Case study: Dorweiler - 140m³/day household and surface waste water
A full detailed case study for treating up to 140m³ mixed waste water from households without using any external energy in Germany, you can download the pdf here
Waste water treatment: Private home 900l/d
This very small constructed wetland was installed in Marktheidenfeld, Landkreis Main-Spessart, Bavaria. It is a vertical flow wetland cleaning the household effluent (toilet, shower, kitchen etc).
It is designed to handle the waste water of 6 people which equals in Germany 900 liter per day total (150l per day per person on average). The surface is around 24m² and is located directly outside the house under the kitchen window.
It was already build in 1999 and is runing since then with minimial involvement or costs. The construction costs have been very low since most of the work has been done directly by the client based on a detailled planning by a professional.
The only energy required is the pump that pumps the effluent after the 3 chamber pretreatment on top of the wetland surface. The water leaving the wetland is clean and is infiltrated into the ground.
Click the headline for a short video clip (wmv, 2:15 min, 6MB, spanish language)
Build in 2003
Type of waste water: waste water from slaughter house
Pretreatment: Mechanical / grease trap
Waste water quantity: 200m³ / day
Size of wetland: 2000m²
It has been proven that in tropical climte this system is excremely robust and delivers constantly high purification rates.
Household waste water treatment 1,5m³ (no energy required)
This waste water treatment system has been installed October 2005 in Paschel near Trier in Germany. It is a great example how to treat household waste water without the need of any larger, centralised infrastructure or any need for electrictity to treat waste water decentralised.
Digging hole of any shape or form. In this case rectangular. The larger the waste water quantities the larger the space requirements.
Insert water tight plastic foil.
After putting down the drainage system on the bottom of the constructed wetland you fill the hole with different layers of sand and gravel.
On top of the sand the distribution system is layed out.
Other parts of the construction includes the three chamber pretreatment and the intermittent distribution tank (hydraulically only - no electrical power required)
Latest pictures from February 2007.
Summary
- Build 10/05
- Designed waste water capacity 1,2m³/day
- Type of waste water: Household effluent
- Size of wetland: 4 x 10m totals 40m²
- Depth: 1 m
- 3 different sizes of sand
- 4 different sand filter tranches
- Over 100 wetland plants have been planted
- Treated waste water is infiltrating into the ground
- Total costs less then ? 10,000
- Time to construct wetland: 1 day!!
- No energy required - no running costs
