One-Year Operational Data for Wiconisco Wastewater Treatment Plant Illustrating Process Improvements and Carbon Footprint Reduction with SolarBee® Circulators

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Archis Ambulkar ◽  
Stephen N. Zeller ◽  
Douglas Klinger

In 2008, Brinjac Engineering Inc., retained municipal engineer for Wiconisco Township wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), assisted the Township with obtaining Growing Greener II Innovative Wastewater Treatment Grant Award for $84,000 to reduce treatment plant carbon footprint. With this prime objective and considering other aerators related operational issues, the plant was upgraded with new solar circulators/aerators in March'09, with one (1) solar unit installed in Lagoon # 1 and two units (2) in Lagoon # 2. Four (4) of the existing eight (8) aerators were continued to use as backup for these solar units. With these upgrades, the WWTP process changed from aerated lagoons to a system resembling towards an advanced facultative system. System performance was analyzed prior to and after upgrades. During the one (1) year of WWTP operations after upgrades (Mar'09–Feb'10 period), it was in full compliance with NPDES effluent permit. The WWTP influent data indicated that hydraulic and organic loadings remained consistent prior to and after upgrades (Jan'08–Feb'10 period). Average daily effluent BOD5 and TSS were 5.4 mg/l and 29.2 mg/l respectively before upgrades, whereas they were 6.5 mg/l and 18.6 mg/l respectively after upgrades indicating improvements in TSS removal. Average monthly fecal coliform between Jan'08–Mar'09 period was 16 mg/l (prior to upgrades) whereas it averaged at 5.5 mg/l after upgrades reflecting better coliform treatment. Other parameters including D.O., pH and residual chlorine remained within permit limits. Sludge depths in lagoons # 1 and # 2 decreased by approx. 2.50 ft and 0.50 ft respectively after upgrades. In 2009, the SolarBee® units reduced algae sufficient enough that no biological additives were needed for its control, resulting in an annual saving of more than $5,000. Apart from process improvements, monthly electricity consumption and electric bills at WWTP decreased by about 47% and 32% respectively after upgrades. Some additional cost savings were compensated due to increase in unit electric costs. During Jan'08–Feb'10 period, Chapter 94 Reports did not indicate for any significant modifications at WWTP other than Solar system upgrades that would result in major changes to electricity consumption. Hence, energy savings were considered to be directly related to these upgrades. With energy savings, carbon footprint of WWTP decreased by 47%. Process improvements at the WWTP were consistent with experiences from previous case studies. Overall, solar units provided efficient circulation and mixing in lagoons while maintaining aerobic conditions necessary for treatment and served as a suitable option for process improvements, minimizing energy costs, carbon footprint reduction and meeting permit limits.

2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 (13) ◽  
pp. 3722-3729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Walz ◽  
J.R. Coughenour ◽  
Kevin Williams ◽  
John Jacobs ◽  
Larry Shone ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 1260-1262
Author(s):  
Stela Sefa ◽  
Tania Floqi ◽  
Julian Sefa

The wastewater treatment plant serving the city of Durres, which is the second most populous city of Albania, employs the tertiary advanced wastewater treatment method and engages in biogas production to achieve energy efficiency. In order to empirically evaluate the plant’s energy efficiency realization, the total biogas produced and converted to electricity for daily consumption was measured during a three years period (2016 - 2018). The highest electricity produced was recorded in 2016, with a daily average of 844kWh compared to 550kWh and 370kWh in 2017 and 2018, respectively. So that the plant meets proper criteria to classify as an energy-efficient entity, 30.0 percent of its electricity consumption must be derived from biogas. Converted in kWh, the plant should generate 2,975 kWh/day. Based on the biomass and energy values measured during the study period, it is concluded that electricity supplied from biogas met 6.0 percent of the plant’s energy requirements, or one fifth of the energy-efficiency target. While the plant was successful in carrying out the full waste-to-energy production process, the electricity supplied from biogas was very low and did not fulfil the plant’s self-energy requirements.


2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alaa Hasan ◽  
Abdel Rahman Salem ◽  
Ahmad Abdel Hadi ◽  
Mohammad Qandil ◽  
Ryoichi S. Amano ◽  
...  

Abstract Upgrading the aeration basin technology can improve the oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE), while keeping the energy consumption at its minimum level. Therefore, this paper introduces a new idea of installing micro-propeller turbines in the aeration basin of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to extract power from the high-velocity location in the water column. This extracted power can be used to operate a mixer at the top of the membrane to induce the mixing in that region, which will drive the less oxygenated wastewater into the water column. The rest of the extracted power will rotate microturbine rotors for electric power generation. By applying the proposed microturbines to the 13 audited facilities, it was demonstrated to achieve a gross annual energy-savings of 3,836.9 MWh, a gross annual cost-saving of $260,497, and total CO2 emissions that would be reduced by 2,714 metric tons/year. Generally, the addition of the proposed microturbines can save up to 15.7% of the annual plant electricity consumption (1.3–12.8% of the plant annual electricity bills).


Author(s):  
A. Bernardelli ◽  
S. Marsili-Libelli ◽  
A. Manzini ◽  
S. Stancari ◽  
G. Tardini ◽  
...  

Abstract Two separate goals should be jointly pursued in wastewater treatment: nutrient removal and energy conservation. An efficient controller performance should cope with process uncertainties, seasonal variations and process nonlinearities. This paper describes the design and testing of a model predictive controller (MPC) based on neuro-fuzzy techniques that is capable of estimating the main process variables and providing the right amount of aeration to achieve an efficient and economical operation. This algorithm has been field tested on a large-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant of about 500,000 PE, with encouraging results in terms of better effluent quality and energy savings.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashish Kumar Gupta

The objective was to design a municipal wastewater treatment plant with primary sedimentation and without primary sedimentation and then compare the savings in capital cost. The project discussed the design procures for the various units such as preliminary units, secondary units and tertiary units. The parametric cost estimation concept is utilized to arrive at the capital cost savings. The literature review includes the various methods to recover the nutrients from the wastewater. The literature review also includes various measures to be taken for performance improvement of municipal wastewater treatment plants. This project concludes that capital cost savings of about twenty percent can be achieved by not providing the primary sedimentation.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 6898
Author(s):  
Sylwia Myszograj ◽  
Dariusz Bocheński ◽  
Mirosław Mąkowski ◽  
Ewelina Płuciennik-Koropczuk

Wastewater treatment plants designed to meet the requirements of discharging wastewater to a receiving water body are often not energy optimised. Energy requirements for conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment plants are estimated to range from 0.30 to 1.2 kWh/m3, with the highest values achieved using the nitrification process. This article describes the energy optimisation process of the wastewater treatment plant in Gubin (Poland) designed for 90 000 PE (population equivalent) using renewable energy sources: solar, biogas, and geothermal. At the analysed wastewater treatment plant electricity consumption for treating 1 m3 of wastewater was 0.679 kWh in 2020. The combined production of electricity and heat from biogas, the production of electricity in a photovoltaic system, and heat recovery in a geothermal process make it possible to obtain a surplus of heat in relation to its demand in the wastewater treatment plant, and to cover the demand for electricity, with the possibility of also selling it to the power grid.


2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 1089-1095 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Sharma ◽  
T. Guildal ◽  
H. R. Thomsen ◽  
B. N. Jacobsen

The aim of this project was to investigate the potential of reducing number of mixers in the biological treatment process and thereby achieve energy and economical savings and contribute to cleaner environment. The project was carried out at Avedoere wastewater treatment plant and a full scale investigation was conducted to study the effect of reduced mixing on flow velocity, suspended solid sedimentation, concentration gradients of oxygen and SS with depth and treatment efficiency. The only negative effect observed was on flow velocity; however the velocity was above the critical velocity. The plant has been operating with 50% of its designed number of mixers since September 2007 and long term results also confirm that reduced mixing did not have any negative effect on treatment efficiency. The estimated yearly electricity saving is 0.75 GWh/year.


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