Recycling

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Liquids

(Current Recycling Technology and Processes)

Water Recycling Process  (Page 1)

As important as water in our civilization, water recycling is also an important sector in the recycling technology today. In this section, we will closely examine the today’s technology in water recycling processes as part of the fundamental understanding of the recycling processes as a whole.  An interest start would be to look at the natural ways of water recycling. Natural Water Recycling Our nature has been a powerful force to recycle and reuse water through the natural water cycle for millions of years.  Millions of liters of water first evaporate from the rivers and ocean under the influences of the sun to form a huge invisible gas consisting of water vapors in the atmosphere.  Then clouds are formed as these water vapors turn into little water droplets when they cooled down.  When the amount of these little water droplets in atmosphere increase to a certain amount, they fall on to the grounds as rains.  When the rains rush into rivers and flow towards the oceans, another natural water cycle starts.  Today’s Water Recycling Technology Water recycling process aims to produce water with reused value, through wastewater treatment and management.  As a result of water recycling, the recycled water would be suitable for beneficial usage. The benefits from water recycling include pollution prevents, maximizing the usage of resources, and increasing sources of water used in our civilization.  The processes of water recycling generally include wastewater treatment, water storing and distribution, and recycled water utilization. 1.) Wastewater Treatment Processes In the wastewater treatment processes, waste water consisting of other solid debris, bacteria, and excess biological nutrients, is transformed into water that can be reuse by human society through multiple steps of treatments.     a. First of all, solid debris in the wastewater are collected and removed from the water to protect the     water treatment factory equipments.      b. After the smaller suspended solids in the wastewater are slowly settled down at the bottom and    greases float to the top under the influence of gravity, the two are removed from the treated water.     c. Then a biological treatment is applied to remove the organic matters from the wastewater.     d. Finally the wastewater is treated using chlorine to prevent possible infections.  2.) Storing and distributing the Treated Water After the wastewater treatment, the treated water is generally stored in service reservoirs to be distributed due to the constantly changing demand of water. The treated water is then distributed through networks of pumps and pipelines. 3.) Recycled Water Utilization Recycled water is generally used in nonpotable applications, meaning water not for drinking.  These applications include irrigations for agricultural, landscape purposes, and part of coolants used in industrial cooling systems. To learn more about the reuse of the recycled water, please visit Water Facts.

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QUICK LINKS (Specific Table of Contents): Section I: Introduction Section II: Present (YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN THIS SECTION) Section III: Future

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