The use of water is affected by the campus population which varies in ITU due to its public facilities. Along with students and employees, many local people enter the university campuses throughout the day. Therefore, it is our main target to measure the use and reuse of water across the university. We could achieve these via ITU Water Management Directive and ITU Climate Action Plan.

Water measure and monitoring

ITU as a body has a Water Management Directive, which protects water resources on the campus and prevents polluted water from entering the water system. In this way, water systems are not affected by any kind of failure. All infrastructures about stormwater and wastewater are separated from each other.

Wastewater Treatment and Water Reuse

The whole generated wastewater is collected from the buildings and treated by an innovative MBR plant. ITU Sustainability Office coordinator Assoc. Prof. Dr. Borte Kose Mutlu has been the PI of a TUBITAK 1001 Project (2021-2025), which aims to treat the campus wastewater to reuse.

Title of the Project : Investigation of Pilot Scale Applicability of Quorum Quenching Mechanism in Treatment of Industrial and Urban Wastewater with MBR

Summary of the Project :Due to global water scarcity, reuse of urban wastewater gain importance day by day. The worldwide total capacity of facilities using membrane bioreactors (MBR) that can provide advanced treatment of wastewater shows a significant increase. The main problem of MBR technology, where membrane technology and biological treatment come together, is the biofouling caused by the biofilm formed on the surface of the membranes. As a result of biofouling, the unit treatment cost increase due to the high energy consumption. The main reason for biofilm formation is the group behavior of microorganisms within the activated sludge as a result of quorum sensing (QS). Communication between microorganisms can be interrupted by enzymatic degradation of signal molecules (quorum quenching, QQ). Although QQ-MBR technology seemed very innovative about ten years ago, it is now a technology that has been proven effective today but has entered a slowdown process due to the obstacles in front of the scale-up.

In this study, the sustainability of the QQ mechanism during toxic shocks, which may occur in an MBR facility performing urban wastewater treatment with industrial wastewater discharge, will be examined. QQ mechanism will be carried out with beads in which Rhodococcus sp. BH4 bacteria are immobilized. First, the material and production of beads will be optimized as the sustainability of bead strength is important in pilot-scale studies. Then, QQ-MBR operations will be started with semi-industrial urban wastewater. In this context, QQ-MBRs fed by urban wastewater with the addition of sulfate representing the textile industry and lead metal representing the cement industry will be operated on a semi-pilot scale. Also, QQ-MBR operating performances will be also observed by increasing salinity. Semi-pilot scale studies will be completed with a combined operation with beads including two QQ species and mixed wastewater. Finally, a pilot MBR plant with a volume of 3000 L will be converted to a QQ-MBR. Treatment and fouling performances will be observed in all operations. Changes in the microbial community will also be examined with samples routinely taken from activated sludge and biofilm. Feasibility studies will be conducted in line with the data. In addition to these, the problems experienced in biofilm imaging techniques will also be focused on and an original study on image processing will be carried out with code writing As a result of interpreting and evaluating the results of the studies with the right approach, it is believed that most of the research questions that researchers have in mind on the commercialization of the fundamental biology science in QQ-MBR technology will be answered. Research questions are mostly on the treatability of real urban wastewater, industrial wastewater, and workability on larger scales. In this sense, the study has originality.

You can watch the project video here:

Guideline Standards

The pilot scale MBR plant in the campus and Baltalimanı Biological Wastewater Treatment Plant near to the campus treat and discharge the domestic wastewater according to the local and national regulations.

Regulation On Drinking Water Basins

Urban Wastewater Treatment Regulation

Water Pollution Control Regulation

Water Quality Monitoring and Evaluation

Collection and Reuse of Rainwater and Greywater in the Campus

The coordinator of ITU Sustainability Office had carried out a study on the drinkability of collected rainwater in the campus. Therain water was supplied from the cistern located in the garden of a mosque, newly constructed on the university campus. While the volume of the cistern was 278 m3, the rainwater collection area was 2,000 m2. There were four channels for the rainwater collection in the tetrastoon and a weir in the cistern to remove the excess amount of rainwater during the heavy storm days. The water sample was taken using clear plastic bottles. The bottle was filled and sealed. The temperature, pH, and conductivity were measured on-site. All on-site measurements were triplicated. Following this, rainwater was characterized prior to the NF experiments to determine the concentration of some metals, anions, and cations. Commercial membranes were also subjected to the characterization prior to the NFstudies. NF experiments had been carried out by following the experimental combinations given by RSM. The optimum membrane and operating pressure were determined for a feasible rainwater treatment. Finally, to determine the reuse potential of commercial membranes, the four filtration cycles were also carried out using the rainwater at optimum operating pressure.

To conclude, rainwater recycling systems can save a large quantity of relatively high-quality water at a reasonable cost although there had been some published results based on the misrepresented operational costs of membrane systems. There is a growing awareness of water-sensitive urban design with water recycling. It seemed important to consider the costs and environmental impacts before choosing a treatment method for that recycling. Membrane processes have better drinking water quality, safe drinking water, and lower environmental impact compared to the other treatment alternatives. Especially regarding the energy demand, NF is known to have a large demand due to the required pressures; however, it was proven in this study that lower operating pressures can be also applied. Generally speaking, NF was found to be a proper method for NOM and sulphate removal from rainwater, and a package NF unit can be easily installed on a university campus for the reuse of water.

Please read the full-length article: Börte Köse-Mutlu,

Water Sci Technol (2021) 83 (3): 580–594.

https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2020.591