De Kruit(Water)Fabriek

Innovative water cycle at local level

The water cycle in Flanders is under pressure. There is a need for solutions to limit the use of mains water and to allow more rainwater to infiltrate. The reuse of household wastewater can play a role in this. Source separation is essential, so that we can treat and reuse grey water (wastewater from kitchens, showers, washbasins and washing machines) locally, while the more polluted black water (from toilets) is discharged through the sewerage system. Furthermore, urine, a rich source of phosphorus and nitrogen, can also be collected separately for nutrient recovery.

In the Kruitfabriek, an event site that also houses a number of companies, the city of Vilvoorde, in collaboration with Aquafin, Matexi and NuReSys, has set up a living lab on local purification and raw materials recovery from wastewater. The project was named Kruit(Water) Fabriek - Innovative water cycle at local level.

For two years, the waste water from the Kruinfabriek was treated locally in a setting that combined research and demonstration. For example, grey water was collected separately and purified for reuse and urine from the men's urinals was treated separately to create a phosphate-rich fertiliser. We made the installations visually attractive, with special attention to their educational value.

The aim of this project was to test a number of concepts on local purification and reuse of water and raw materials in a real urban environment. We investigated the achievable quality of the upgraded greywater during different test phases, and a comparison was made with the standards for irrigation, discharge and drinking water.