Environmental aspects in construction. Environmental management in constructing autonomous facilities
The present work provides an experimental assessment and proves the possibility of reducing wastewater flow rates in water treatment systems, as well as storm and household sewage, to volumes allowing their inland transportation, which would help avoid environmental pollution and costs associated with building drainage networks. The paper describes major environmental problems that often arise while establishing water supply and drainage systems at new facilities under construction, remote from drainage networks. New reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membrane technologies are considered that ensure high-quality purification of both drinkable and process water and wastewater treatment, allowing the latter to be reused for technical purposes. The main advantage of new technologies comprises a significant reduction in water consumption for the balance-of-plant needs, which allows discharges to sewers to be avoided. The study provides process diagrams and experiments demonstrating the possibilities of reducing the volume of concentrates. Technologies for residential building sites are proposed, offering a possibility of designing autonomous systems of water supply and discharge (runoffs and sediments) by vehicles. Furthermore, the volume of wastewater is less than 0.5% of that of water consumed for drinking needs. The described approach to designing water supply and wastewater treatment systems can be used for developing waterworks systems at facilities remote from water supply and sewerage networks, as well as reservoirs where treated wastewater can be discharged. Wastewater purified by reverse osmosis can be used for feeding the recycling water supply network (equipment cooling) and green spaces irrigation.