The U.S. Army uses an estimated 20M gallons of water per year for field sanitation. In an effort to cut down on logistics stress and cost, the Greywater Remediation and Recycling project was started two years ago with the aim of reducing potable water consumption and greywater backhauling by two-thirds. The team is working with two technologies on the commercial market that have been used for decades in industrial applications, and are now small and lightweight enough to be practical for the military.
Critical attributes include low-power consumption per gallon distilled, compact size, durability, low or no-maintenance, ease of operation, and speed that allows remediation to finish before the next meal.
Three systems were recently tested during an August 2004 training exercise at Fort Lee, VA: The Splitter XD from Infinitex, another ultra-distiller from Bristol International Corp., and a micro-distiller from Ovation Products Corp. None of the products tested fully met the criteria, and fixes for the Ovation and Infinitex are apparently on the way. Meanwhile, a greywater recovery system from Advanced Mechanical Technologies Inc. (AMTI) is planned for use with a future Field Feeding Advanced Sustainment Technology kitchen.
With the initial phase complete, the team will continue with a one-year R&D effort if additional funding from the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program is approved.