Making Waves: Why water reuse frameworks need to co-evolve with emerging small-scale technologies

Area of Science:

• Environmental Engineering
• Water Management
• Sustainable Technologies

Background:

• Decentralized water reuse systems for on-site applications like toilet flushing and showering are emerging.
• These technologies require field verification and validation, with performance often benchmarked against water reuse frameworks (WRFs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically evaluate the application and interpretation of water reuse frameworks (WRFs) in recent studies of decentralized water reuse systems.
• To identify challenges in verifying WRF quality targets for novel recycling technologies and applications.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of ten recent journal publications on decentralized water reuse systems.
• Inspection of how performance data is compared to targets from existing water reuse frameworks (WRFs).

Main Results:

• Water reuse frameworks (WRFs) are frequently misinterpreted in published field tests of decentralized water reuse systems.
• Studies often emphasize successful technology aspects over critical water quality evaluation.
• Ambiguous WRF scopes and limited applicability to novel recycling systems contribute to misinterpretations.

Conclusions:

• Current water reuse frameworks (WRFs) are not fully suitable for all emerging reuse cases and decentralized systems.
• There is a critical need for revised WRFs that accommodate new applications, technological advancements, and improved monitoring methods.