Application of domestic greywater for irrigating agricultural products: A brief study

The decline in annual rainfall, coupled with the growing demand for water in agricultural fields, triggered a new crisis in today’s world. Thus, the focus is on finding solutions to new water resources. Taking a look at the normal daily life, most of the households’ effluents can be ranked into a less-polluted category, called greywater. Excluding human dejects, greywater comprises the outflow from washing machines, dishwashers and bathtubs. It is considered an effluent with a more economic treatment, because it contains less microbial pollution. Hence, this work revises the effects of greywater irrigation on the quality of crops, and provides a comprehensive study of the effects of greywater on the quality of soil. Furthermore, a comprehensive discussion is carried out to evaluate the energy consumption of facilities for both greywater and wastewater treatment to provide water used in irrigation. It also addresses current methodologies for treating greywater and evaluates the effects of crops irrigation with treated and untreated greywater, indicating the type of treatment chosen depending on the type of crop to be irrigated.Authors thank the financial support of the project IF/01093/2014/CP1249/CT0003 and research grants IF/01093/ 2014 and SFRH/BPD/112003/2015 funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES, Portugal, and project UID/EQU/ 00305/2013 – Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology, Portugal – CIETI. This work was financially supported by : project UID/EQU/00511/2019 – Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy – LEPABE funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC), Portugal; Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939 (Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy – EPABE, UID/EQU/00511/2013) funded by FEDER, Spain through COMPETE2020-POCI and by national funds through FCT; Project “LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION” – NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000005, funded by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).