Reuse of ablution water for mosque air-conditioning using Indirect

Direct Evaporative Cooling (IDEC) technology in Saudi Arabia.

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INTRODUCTION

Ablution means the act of washing selected exposed body parts (i.e., hands, mouth, nose, nostrils, face, ears, arms and feet)
using clean water, in preparation for the 5-times daily prayers prescribed to Muslims. Besides the daily prayers, mosques are
used for social community activities and programs, where in most of the cases, the participants are required to make ablution
before entering the mosque. The ablution process is depicted in figure 1 for the readers who are not familiar with this
process.

Most of the mosque ablution areas in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) deploy standard handle-type taps, without any
water-saving features, such as aerators and motion sensors. Therefore, the ablution ritual allows a considerable amount of
water to go to waste when only handfuls of water are collected and used at each step of the ritual, as people seldom close
the taps while the hands are busy washing the body parts. This is because closing taps, after holding water in the palm,
every time before washing the body parts is not that convenient.

The ablution process usually takes up several minutes of running clean water, and depending on the facility supply water
pressure, the water usage by a single person per prayer, can range on average between 0.7 gallon (2.5 liter) and 1.2 gallon
(4.5 liter). As such, it has been established that about half of the tap water flows directly to the drain, with very little
contamination. Consequently, this ritual, when performed en masse in all mosques, entails significant volumes of expensively
treated water (Al Mamun, 2014).

This water use in the KSA, which is a severely water-stressed country, coupled with the fact that electricity consumption has
been steadily increasing by nearly 8% annually for the past 10 years, makes it imperative to adopt innovative ideas not only
to use water effectively, but also to find ways to control power demand growth (SEC, 2014).

This paper takes a novel approach by evaluating the energy and water implications of using reclaimed ablution water to run
high efficiency Indirect/Direct Evaporative Cooling (IDEC) unit for mosque air conditioning, rather than using existing
inefficient conventional AC all year round. It is the author's hope that this study paves the road for engineers working on new
mosque designs and existing mosques efficiency upgrades, to think outside current classical water reuse ideas, such as
flushing toilets, irrigation or car cleaning.

WATER-ENERGY NEXUS

The treated ablution water, which is mostly of a drinking water quality, has embedded energy content as it passes through
four energy consuming areas, namely, source water extraction and delivery to the treatment plant; the treatment and
purification process; the distribution to mosques, and the discharge to sewer treatment plants. Al Mamun et al (2014)
reported that this embedded energy ranges between 1.1 and 20.1 kilowatt-hours per 1000 gallons (3.785 [M.sup.3]) in
Malaysia. Also, the Water Reuse Association (2011), provided comprehensive tables for the embedded energy content for
various water supply alternatives in the USA. For example, the embedded in seawater desalination ranges between 10 and
13 kilowatt-hours per 1000 gallons (3.785 [M.sup.3]).

Table 1 provides an overview of the water resources in the KSA per water treatment process, and the typical embedded
energy consumption for each one (O.K.M. Ouda et al, 2014). It can be seen that the embedded energy is country-specific.

Conversely, the electrical energy consumed in mosques has also embedded water content, as water is used during fuel
extraction and power generation. Younos et al (2009), provided a comprehensive review of the interdependency between
water and energy infrastructure, by source fuel types and power generation technology types. For example, for natural gas
and oil production, which are the main source energy for power generation in the KSA, the average water quantity needed is
10 gallons (0.0375 [M.sup.3]) and 6,000 gallons (22.7 [M.sup.3]) per Megawatthour respectively. Similarly, in fossil fuel
thermal power generation plants, which are mostly used in the KSA, the average water quantity needed is 3,700 gallons (14
[M.sup.3]) per Megawatt-hour. It should be noted that power generation involving C[O.sub.2] capture will have different
values of water consumption (Calin-Cristian Cormos, Konstantinos Vatopoulos, Evangelos Tzimas, 2013).
Therefore, the total water consumed to generate one Megawatt-hour would be the sum of the water consumed in fuel
extraction and power generation. Additionally, since the electrical source to site conversion efficiency for the KSA is nearly
30% (Alyousef et al, 2012), a one Megawatt-hour consumed on site would use nearly 3 fold the aforementioned water
volumes.

WATER SCARCITY CHALLENGES IN THE KSA

The KSA's rainfall is sparse and infrequent, with annual average precipitation ranging between 1 and 13 inches (26 mm and
330 mm) (Saudi Aramco, 2014). The rapid growth of population, limited water reserves, insufficient recharge, and extensive
agricultural and landscaping activities, have increased pressure on the water resources. Figure 2 (left) depicts how the KSA
is severely water-stressed (Saudi Aramco, 2013).

Despite KSA's water limitations, the water consumption per capita is very high, compared to other non-water stressed
countries. As per the Ministry of Water and Electricity, the daily residential water usage per capita was reported as high as 75
gallons (286 liters) in 2010 as shown in Figure 2 (right). If only major cities (e.g., Riyadh, alKhobar, and Jiddah--the orange
bar) are considered, the consumption rate is higher than that of Canada, and is very close to that of the USA, countries with
abundant water resources.

POWER DEMAND CHALLENGES IN THE KSA

Electricity consumption has been steadily increasing annually for the past 10 years in the KSA. The Saudi Electricity
Company sold nearly 275 Tera-watthours in 2014, a 7% increase compared to 2013. In 2013, nearly 61,000 mosques across
the KSA consumed 2.4 Tera-watthours, which is expected to increase due to the increasing population, the dynamic
infrastructure expansion, and low energy prices (SEC, 2013). Based on an average annual power demand increase of 7%
increase, it is estimated that the current mosques power consumption demand is close to 3 Tera-watthours.

Hamoud (2005) conducted several energy audits for typical mosques located in hot and humid areas in the KSA. The
electrical billing data analysis revealed that mosques AC has the lion share, nearly 70%, among other loads such as lighting
and ceiling fans, as most mosques use inefficient AC units. Therefore, it can be comfortably assumed that mosque AC
annual energy consumption is well over 2 Tera-watthours, offering the largest energy savings opportunity in mosques.

WATER REUSE HEALTH ASPECTS

To gauge the ablution water quality, the following parameters shown in table 2 were examined for six post-ablution samples,
taken from various mosques in the Makkah area and surroundings (Abu-Rizaiza, 2002). The ablution water contained very
little soap without solid impurities, however, small amounts of microorganisms, mainly from gargling, and also colon bacteria
were found. The colon bacteria were attributed to a combination of several reasons, e.g., many prayers use the bathroom
just before proceeding to perform ablution, the local habit of prayers washing the plastic-made sandals in the ablution sink,
and some mosque janitors do not clean the ablution area as frequently as required.

Therefore, this study suggests the development of a plumbing system designed to collect, filter and disinfect ablution water.
The treatment included filtration by a fine sand/carbon filter, followed by chlorination. Additionally, the IDEC unit has a built-in
Ultraviolet (UV) filter, which is the most effective method for disinfecting bacteria from the water. Overall, the treated ablution
water must be in compliance with permissible levels of the Saudi national drinking water quality standards (PME 2016).

ABLUTION WATER VOLUME ESTIMATION

Abu-Rizaiza (2002) analyzed a sample of 48 mosques across the KSA, including the world's largest, the two holy mosques
in Makkah and Madinah, in terms of mosque area and location, number of people attending prayers, and the ratio of those
performing ablution, and ablution water usage per person. Table 3 shows a summary of the results, with an estimate of the
national total mosque area and the corresponding ablution water daily consumption in 2002. Since our literature reviews
confirmed there are no similar recent reports, the 2002 data had to be extrapolated.

The total number of mosques in 2013 was 60,480 (SEC, 2013). Now, knowing that the total number of mosques has
increased from 32,781 to 60,480 between 2002 and 2013, i.e. over 11 years, respectively, the annual growth rate of
mosques in the KSA was found to be 5.7%. This growth rate ratio was assumed constant, and was applied to the 2002 daily
national ablution water consumption, to calculate an annual ablution water consumption of nearly 7 billion gallons (26 million
[M.sup.3]).

Similar to the building Energy Use Intensity (EUI), which is commonly used to benchmark building energy efficiency level is
Kbtu/[ft.sup.2]/year, a new descriptor for a national average ablution water use intensity, namely [WUI.sub.ablution] in
[M.sup.3]/[m.sup.2]/year is introduced. Applying the same growth rate to the 2002 total floor area, the current mosque floor
area was estimated at 290 million [ft.sup.2] (26,914,589 [m.sup.2]), which resulted in a national average [WUI.sub.ablution]
of 0.96 [M.sup.3]/[m.sup.2]/year.

This value will be helpful in estimating the monthly and annual expected ablution water usage for any given mosque area in
the KSA. However, the instantaneous water usage is variable and will have a peak value during the Friday's noon prayer and
during special religious events. For this reason, the ablution water collection tank and its connected piping system should be