Condensate Water as Alternate Resource for Mitigating Water Stress: A Case Study

The escalating population and industrial development have led to increase the water stress resulting into depletion of 0.8% of available potable freshwater and increasing water pollution. To enhance water sustainability and to tackle the water requirement of the population an approach was made, involving the extraction of water from the atmosphere by reclaiming condensate from air conditioning systems. This study examined the quantity and quality of condensate water, finding parameters mostly within acceptable limits of BIS 2012, except the parameter turbidity and Mg, where 75% and 33.33% of samples are exceeding the acceptable limit, respectively. Escherichia coli was absent in the samples. The mean water quality index (2.2) was observed to be excellent and mean discharge rate of condensate water was 1.83 L/h. The Durov plot and piper trilinear diagram showed that the water samples are dominant with HCO3- and Cl- with the presence of SO42-. Mg2+ and Ca2+ cations are also found to be in moderate concentration in the water samples. Pollution indices indicate that the values are below the contamination level. A nationwide survey of 1010 individuals indicate a mean daily water consumption of 54.4 L/day, suggesting potential for water saving and condensate utilization awareness. The study proposes a water harvesting approach, estimating plumbing material costs, installation expenses and its potential limitations. The findings suggest that reclaimed air conditioner condensate could function as a viable source of water for non-potable household purposes in hot and humid regions along with the proposed design of harvesting system.