Overview
ISO 20468-1:2018 - Guidelines for performance evaluation of treatment technologies for water reuse systems - Part 1: General - provides international guidance for assessing how well treatment technologies perform in water reuse applications. The standard defines typical water quality parameters, methods for comparing measured vs target values, and sets out both functional requirements (what the technology must do to transform water quality) and non‑functional requirements (performance constraints and indicators such as availability, energy use and waste generation).
This part is intended as a general framework to support objective, repeatable performance evaluations of treatment technologies used in fit‑for‑purpose water reuse systems.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Terms and definitions relevant to water reuse evaluation (aligned with ISO 20670 vocabulary), e.g., availability, dependability, removal efficiency, downtime, failure.
- Concepts of treatment technology including treatment objectives and common technology categories for fit‑for‑purpose reuse.
- Performance evaluation principles:
- Distinction between functional requirements (quality transformation, removal efficiency, log‑removal values) and non‑functional requirements (reliability, maintainability, environmental and economic indicators).
- Guidance on establishing monitoring plans and comparing measured and target values.
- Functional requirement evaluation procedures - step‑by‑step methods for judging compliance with water quality goals.
- Non‑functional performance indicators and evaluation methods, including:
- Energy consumption, chemical consumption
- Quantity and handling of solid/liquid wastes
- Integrated environmental and economic performance considerations
- Dependability and dependability evaluation (informative annexes) to assess availability, reliability and maintenance support.
Practical applications and who uses it
ISO 20468-1:2018 is practical for:
- Municipal and industrial planners and project managers specifying treatment performance for water reuse projects.
- Designers and system integrators selecting technologies to meet regulatory and fit‑for‑purpose targets.
- Manufacturers and technology suppliers documenting performance expectations and benchmarking products.
- Operators, monitoring teams, regulators and third‑party assessors conducting performance testing, compliance checks, or continuous improvement.
- Organizations applying management systems (e.g., ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 50001) can use this standard to align technical performance evaluation with broader management objectives.
Related standards
ISO 20468-1:2018 helps stakeholders implement objective, transparent evaluation of treatment technologies for safe, efficient and sustainable water reuse. Keywords: ISO 20468-1:2018, water reuse, performance evaluation, treatment technologies, functional requirements, non-functional requirements, removal efficiency, monitoring plan, dependability.
Open preview (PDF)Guidelines for performance evaluation of treatment technologies for water reuse systems — Part 1: General
