Use of oleaginous plants in phytotreatment of grey water and yellow water from source separation of sewage Maria Cristina Lavagnolo 1 , Mario Malagoli 2 , Luca Alibardi 1 , Francesco Garbo 1 , Alberto Pivato 1 , Raffaello Cossu 1, ⁎ 1. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, via Lungargine Rovetta 8, 35127 Padova, Italy. E-mail: mariacristina.lavagnolo@unipd.it 2. DAFNAE, University of Padova, viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 11 May 2016 Revised 22 August 2016 Accepted 1 September 2016 Available online 27 September 2016 Efficient and economic reuse of waste is one of the pillars of modern environmental engineering. In the field of domestic sewage management, source separation of yellow (urine), brown (faecal matter) and grey waters aims to recover the organic substances concentrated in brown water, the nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous) in the urine and to ensure an easier treatment and recycling of grey waters. With the objective of emphasizing the potential of recovery of resources from sewage management, a lab-scale research study was carried out at the University of Padova in order to evaluate the performances of oleaginous plants (suitable for biodiesel production) in the phytotreatment of source separated yellow and grey waters. The plant species used were Brassica napus (rapeseed), Glycine max (soybean) and Helianthus annuus (sunflower). Phytotreatment tests were carried out using 20 L pots. Different testing runs were performed at an increasing nitrogen concentration in the feedstock. The results proved that oleaginous species can conveniently be used for the phytotreatment of grey and yellow waters from source separation of domestic sewage, displaying high removal efficiencies of nutrients and organic substances (nitrogen > 80%; phosphorous > 90%; COD nearly 90%). No inhibition was registered in the growth of plants irrigated with different mixtures of yellow and grey waters, where the characteristics of the two streams were reciprocally and beneficially integrated. © 2016 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. Keywords: Phytotreatment Sewage Source separation Decentralization Grey water Urine Energy crops Introduction The traditional concept of using huge quantities of water to transport domestic waste away from households, resulting in the production of diluted wastewater streams and treatment at centralized facilities, has often been reconsidered due to the related costs, high use of resources and significant surface occupancy (Butler and Parkinson, 1997; GTZ, 2003; Gandini, 2004). More and more attention is being focused on sustainable sanitation systems, aimed at closing nutrient and water cycles, with low material and energy consumption. In these systems, sewage is considered a valuable source of nutrients and water for plant growth. Sustainable sanitation systems are generally based on collection and treatment of different source-separated sewage streams: yellow water (urine); brown water (faeces) and grey waters from kitchen, laundry, dishwasher, shower, etc. (Langergraber and Muellegger, 2005; Cossu et al., 2003a, 2003b; JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 55 (2017) 274 – 282 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail: raffaello.cossu@unipd.it (Raffaello Cossu). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2016.08.013 1001-0742/© 2016 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/jes