The potential for thermal energy recovery from wastewater treatment works in southern England

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hawley ◽  
Richard Fenner
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Shadow Price ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Heat Extraction ◽  
Southern England ◽  
Financial Feasibility ◽  
Discharge Temperature

This paper asks how much heat could be recovered from wastewater treatment plants under UK climatic conditions, and can this heat be used effectively to reduce their carbon footprint? Four wastewater treatment sites in southern England have been investigated and the available heat quantified. Issues relating to the environmental, economic and practical constraints on how this energy can be realistically recovered and utilised are discussed. The results show there is a definite possibility for thermal energy recovery and demonstrates that the financial feasibility of three options for using the heat (either for district heating, sludge drying or thermophilic heating in sludge digestion processes) is highly dependent upon the current shadow price of carbon. Without the inclusion of the cost of carbon, the financial feasibility is significantly limited. An environmental constraint for the allowable discharge temperature of effluent after heat extraction was found to be the major limitation to the amount of energy available for recovery. The paper establishes the true potential of thermal energy recovery from wastewater in English conditions and the economic feasibility of reducing the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment operations using this approach.

Economic, energy and carbon footprint assessment of integrated forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (FOMBR) process in urban wastewater treatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Hafizah Ab Hamid ◽  
Simon Smart ◽  
David K. Wang ◽  
Kaniel Wei Jun Koh ◽  
Kalvin Jiak Chern Ng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Membrane Bioreactor ◽  
Forward Osmosis ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Water Reclamation ◽  
Urban Wastewater ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Carbon Footprint Assessment ◽  
Urban Wastewater Treatment

This study systematically explores the potential applications of forward osmosis (FO) membrane based technology in urban wastewater treatment and water reclamation for their techno-economic feasibility and sustainability.

scholarly journals From Cardoon Lignocellulosic Biomass to Bio-1,4 Butanediol: An Integrated Biorefinery Model

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1585
Author(s):  
Isabella De Bari ◽  
Aristide Giuliano ◽  
Maria Teresa Petrone ◽  
Giovanni Stoppiello ◽  
Vittoria Fatta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Production Process ◽  
Lignocellulosic Biomass ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Energy Requirement ◽  
Integrated Biorefinery ◽  
Energy Recovery System ◽  
Recovery System

Biorefineries are novel, productive models that are aimed at producing biobased alternatives to many fossil-based products. Biomass supply and overall energy consumptions are important issues determining the overall biorefinery sustainability. Low-profit lands appear to be a potential option for the sustainable production of raw materials without competition with the food chain. Cardoon particularly matches these characteristics, thanks to the rapid growth and the economy of the cultivation and harvesting steps. An integrated biorefinery processing 60 kton/y cardoon lignocellulosic biomass for the production of 1,4-butanediol (bio-BDO) is presented and discussed in this work. After designing the biorefinery flowsheet, the mass and energy balances were calculated. The results indicated that the energy recovery system has been designed to almost completely cover the entire energy requirement of the BDO production process. Despite the lower supply of electricity, the energy recovery system can cover around 78% of the total electricity demand. Instead, the thermal energy recovery system was able to satisfy the overall demand of the sugar production process entirely, while BDO purification columns require high-pressure steam. The thermal energy recovery system can cover around 83% of the total thermal demand. Finally, a cradle-to-gate simplified environmental assessment was conducted in order to evaluate the environmental impact of the process in terms of carbon footprint. The carbon footprint value calculated for the entire production process of BDO was 2.82 kgCO2eq/kgBDO. The cultivation phase accounted for 1.94 kgCO2eq/kgBDO, the transport had very little impact, only for 0.067 kgCO2eq/kgBDO, while the biorefinery phase contributes for 0.813 kgCO2eq/kgBDO.

Influence of wastewater treatment on sludge production and processing

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 178-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. P. F. Barber
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Energy Content ◽  
Primary Sludge ◽  
Secondary Sludge ◽  
Configuration Changes ◽  
Chemical Sludge ◽  
Sludge Production

The challenge of stricter wastewater standards is resulting in configuration changes to wastewater treatment. As facilities upgrade, the type of sludge produced is changing, with growing quantities of secondary and chemical sludge at the expense of primary sludge. It is already understood that secondary sludge is harder to treat than its primary equivalent; therefore, increasing the quantity of this type of sludge will have detrimental impacts downstream. As legislation tightens further, extended aeration times may be required during processing to remove more nutrients. Work has shown that extended aeration further exacerbates the difficulty of treating secondary sludge. This paper explains how tightening wastewater legislation fundamentally alters the nature of the sludge produced and how this affects further processing, especially with respect to sludge production and type; sludge energy content; performance of anaerobic digestion and dewatering, and potential for thermal energy recovery.

Thermal Energy Recovery in Wastewater Treatment Plants

2021 ◽  
pp. 125-172
Author(s):  
Viola Somogyi ◽  
Viktor Sebestyén ◽  
Endre Domokos ◽  
Syed Muhammad Hassaan Ali
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants

Economic feasibility study for new technological alternatives in wastewater treatment processes: a review

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 898-906 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Molinos-Senante ◽  
Francesc Hernández-Sancho ◽  
Ramón Sala-Garrido
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Shadow Price ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Market Price ◽  
Feasibility Studies ◽  
Pilot Scale ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Treatment Technologies

The concept of sustainability involves the integration of economic, environmental, and social aspects and this also applies in the field of wastewater treatment. Economic feasibility studies are a key tool for selecting the most appropriate option from a set of technological proposals. Moreover, these studies are needed to assess the viability of transferring new technologies from pilot-scale to full-scale. In traditional economic feasibility studies, the benefits that have no market price, such as environmental benefits, are not considered and are therefore underestimated. To overcome this limitation, we propose a new methodology to assess the economic viability of wastewater treatment technologies that considers internal and external impacts. The estimation of the costs is based on the use of cost functions. To quantify the environmental benefits from wastewater treatment, the distance function methodology is proposed to estimate the shadow price of each pollutant removed in the wastewater treatment. The application of this methodological approach by decision makers enables the calculation of the true costs and benefits associated with each alternative technology. The proposed methodology is presented as a useful tool to support decision making.

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