Regional wastewater treatment–an economical solution? Data from 40 years of operation gives the answer

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-265
Author(s):  
P. Balmér

Economic data from 40 years of operation of three regional wastewater treatment companies have been compiled and analysed. The transport systems consist mainly of gravity flow tunnels with lengths of 55–120 km. In spite of the heavy initial investments <20% of the cumulative total costs can be allocated to the transport systems. The treatment plants all remove 90% or more of the influent Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and phosphorus and 65–80% of the nitrogen. The wastewater treatment is responsible for about 90% of the cumulative operation costs while the transport system is responsible for 20–40% of the cumulative capital costs. Over time the cost of the transport systems has decreased considerably and is after 40 years of operation only 4–13% of the total costs. Although the main benefit of the regional solutions has been the transfer of wastewater from sensitive inland streams and lakes, the data presented give strong evidence that the regional solutions also has been advantageous from an economic point of view.

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 00056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Neverova-Dziopak

Eutrophication is one of the consequences of the negative anthropogenic impact on aquatic ecosystems. It leads to the degradation of both sweet and marine ecosystems, constituting a kind of secondary pollution of waters, which disturbs all types of their use. Undertakings related to preventing the negative effects of eutrophication are mainly conducted towards reducing the loads of nutrients introduced into surface waters and controlling the entire conditions in aquatic ecosystems in order to limit the development of aquatic vegetation. The increasingly restrictive legal requirement regarding the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater discharged into recipients enforces the application of expensive treatment technologies, and the public is becoming more aware of the rising costs of water and wastewater fees. In addition, wastewater treatment is a factor which has a negative impact on air quality due to greenhouse gas emissions and generates other environmental problems. The challenge for facilities, however, is determining which treatment alternatives will best meet their needs, both technically and financially, and to choose the most sustainable path. The problem of establishing a reasonable level of nutrient removal from wastewater, justified from an ecological and economic point of view is discussed in the paper.


1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (11) ◽  
pp. 85-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassaan A. Abd El Gawad ◽  
J. H. C. Butter

In 1993 the Governorate of Fayoum completed its master plan for wastewater management. The master plan presents a staged implementation schedule for the development of wastewater facilities for the Governorate, covering needs up to the year 2020. The targets are ambitious: in order to meet sanitary health standards, nearly two million people (or 60% of the total population) living in 70 towns and villages would need to be served with sewerage systems. Providing all these areas with separate wastewater treatment plants would be impractical. The centralization of treatment at a limited number of treatment plants for clusters of towns and villages has advantages in terms of manageability, cost and environmental protection. In the master plan the configuration of these clusters is presented. For that purpose a stepped approach has been developed: an approach in which aspects such as construction and operation costs of the facilities, existing infrastructure, the geography of the governorate, environmental impact, alternative treatment technologies and phasing of implementation have been considered. An important element of the stepped approach is an analytical model with which - from financial point of view - the optimum size of a cluster can be estimated. Variables of the model are sizes of towns and villages, distances and treatment technologies. The output of the model is a set of general design criteria which has been applied to the specific situation in the governorate. The model has contributed to the establishment of the Master Plan for Wastewater: a plan now used by the Fayoum Sanitation Department as a framework to initiate new projects and to direct the activities of other agencies working in the sanitation sector in the governorate.


Author(s):  
A. Franzoni ◽  
L. Magistri ◽  
O. Tarnowsky ◽  
A. F. Massardo

This paper investigates options for highly efficient SOFC hybrid systems of different sizes. For this purpose different models of pressurised SOFC hybrids systems have been developed in the framework of the European Project “LARGE SOFC - Towards a Large SOFC Power Plant”. This project, coordinated by VTT Finland, counts numerous industrial partners such as Wartsila, Topsoe and Rolls-Royce FCS ltd. Starting from the RRFCS Hybrid System [1], considered as the reference case, several plant modifications have been investigated in order to improve the thermodynamic efficiency. The main options considered are (i) the integration of a recuperated micro gas turbine and (ii) the replacement of the cathodic ejector with a blower. The plant layouts are analysed in order to define the optimum solution in terms of operating parameters and thermodynamic performances. The study of a large size power plant (around 110 MWe) fed by coal and incorporated with SOFC hybrid systems is also conducted. The aim of this study is to analyse the sustainability of an Integrated Gasification Hybrid System from the thermodynamic and economic point of view in the frame of future large sized power generation. A complete thermoeconomic analysis of the most promising plants is carried out, taking into account variable and capital costs of the systems. The designed systems are compared from the thermodynamic and the thermoeconomic point of view with some of the common technologies used for distributed generation (gas turbines and reciprocating engines) and large size power generation (combined cycles and IGCC). The tool used for this analysis is WTEMP software, developed by the University of Genoa (DIMSET-TPG) [2], able to carry out a detailed thermodynamic and thermoeconomic analysis of the whole plants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Salvatore Trubia ◽  
Alessandro Severino ◽  
Salvatore Curto ◽  
Fabio Arena ◽  
Giovanni Pau

The goal of civil engineering has always been the research and implementation of methods, technologies, and infrastructures to improve the community’s quality of life. One of the branches of civil engineering that has the strongest effect on progress is transport. The quality of transport has a profound economic and social impact on our communities regarding trade (freight transport) and city livability (public transport systems). However, innovation is not the only way to improve the features above-mentioned, especially public transport, considering that it is usually beneficial to enhance and repurpose vehicles with appropriate adjustments to offer more efficient services. Other perspectives that influence public transport systems are the costs and times of design and construction, maintenance, operating costs, and environmental impact, especially concerning CO2 emissions. Considering these issues, among the various types of existing public transport systems, those of the so-called Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) offer worthwhile results. The BRT system is a type of public road transport operated by bus on reserved lanes, and it is significantly profitable, especially from an economic point of view, in areas where there are existing bus routes. Nonetheless, for the construction of works minimization, it is closely linked to other features that improve its usefulness, depending on the vehicles’ quality such as capacity, but above all, the propulsion or driving autonomy that would guarantee high efficiency. This paper introduces an analysis of some BRT systems operating worldwide, presenting the background, general technical features, and the correlation with autonomous vehicles.


2011 ◽  
Vol 347-353 ◽  
pp. 1295-1298
Author(s):  
Bin Xia ◽  
Ting Gao

At present, the development of new energy industry has the great significance in optimizing the energy structure and energy security and increasing energy supply in China. In the new energy industry development process existing obvious external effectiveness, make the competition market resources allocation efficiency losses, resulting in deviating from the Pareto optimal state that cause "market failure". According to the general principles that externalities cause resource allocation misconduct eliminate, from an economic point of view that this article point out that the decrease of the cost of production and the increased output efficiency could play the same role in resource allocation efficiency improvements, and through government intervention to make the necessary corrections to optimize the allocation of resources to ensure the development of new energy industries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 835 ◽  
pp. 467-471
Author(s):  
Marcela Halirova ◽  
Radek Janousek ◽  
Hana Sevcikova ◽  
Radek Fabian ◽  
Eva Machovcakova

Fire resistance of building structures is important not only in terms of prevention of hazards to human health, but also from the economic point of view. The choice of method of fire protection of steel structures depends on the responsible choice of finish or cladding material and suitable technology implementation. Although the assessment of fire risk is a priority, when selecting the decisive criteria we must not also forget the cost of fire protection measures. This article aims at economic comparison of the two fire protection measures for the steel column of rolled profiles.


2021 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romário Martins Costa ◽  
Marcos Renan Lima Leite ◽  
Sâmia dos Santos Matos ◽  
Rayssa Carolinne Mouzinho de Sousa ◽  
Raissa Rachel Salustriano da Silva-Matos ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The use of pre-sprouted seedlings in the implantation of sugarcane crops not only reduces the establishment period and production costs, but also has other advantages, such as a lesser requirement of propagules (stems) and greater phytosanitary control of the seedlings, when compared to conventional planting. Commercial substrates are also expensive and their use increases the cost of seedlings. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of sugarcane pre-sprouted seedlings grown on substrates with different proportions of decomposed babassu palm stem (DBPS), as well as to recommend the substrate formulation that provides the most favorable environment for the growth and development of sugarcane pre-sprouted seedlings. For preparation of the substrate (S), DBPS and soil were used in the following proportions: S1: 0 % of DBPS + 100 % of soil; S2: 20 % of DBPS + 80 % of soil; S3: 40 % of DBPS + 60 % of soil; S4: 60 % of DBPS + 40 % of soil; S5: 80 % of DBPS + 20 % of soil; S6: 100 % of DBPS + 0 % of soil. The use of S2 and S3 considerably improved the seedling quality parameters, such as sprout diameter and length, number of leaves and total, shoot and root dry mass. However, from an economic point of view, S2 is recommended for use.


2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Cavinato ◽  
C. Da Ros ◽  
P. Pavan ◽  
F. Cecchi ◽  
D. Bolzonella

Waste activated sludge production and management plays an important role in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), especially from an economic point of view. One possible approach is the anaerobic co-digestion of waste activated sludge with others organic substrates in mesophilic and thermophilic conditions in order to exploit the spare volume of existing reactors, recover energy from biogas production, and obtain a fertilizer as final product. The anaerobic trials were carried out at pilot scale, applying two organic loading rates (2.8 and 4.5 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/(m3·d)) with a hydraulic retention time of 16 and 21 days. Among agro-wastes, wine lees were chosen because of their continuous availability throughout the year, and their high COD content (up to 200–300 g/l, 70% soluble, on average). The addition of wine lees to activated sludge determined a higher biogas production (best yield was 0.40 Nm3/kgCODfed) improving the energetic balance of the sludge line of the WWTP. The characterization of both substrates fed and digester effluents was carried out in terms of heavy metals; comparison with EC proposed limits showed that, due to high content of Cu in wine lees, the loading rate of this agro-waste should be limited to maintain good characteristics of final biosolids.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-60
Author(s):  
Sergey Bank

Futures are one of the subspecies of derivative financial instruments, the key purpose of operations with which is to extract additional revenue from the company, in addition, insurance against various financial risks, referred to as hedging. From an economic point of view, the «negative» value of futures (the «negative» variation margin) indicates that the cost of owning a contract exceeds the amount of losses from a negative price for them. «Negative» variation margin is the company's expense covered by the Depository margin, in addition, it is a price change in a negative direction, a negative financial result for holding a futures contract after a trading day on the exchange.


Author(s):  
Christopher D. Reichert ◽  
Barry Messer ◽  
Larissa C. Reichert

On new construction projects, designers are frequently faced with the choice of whether to use raised face or ring joint flanges for piping systems. Often, decisions are made based on flange types used in the past, without due consideration for the merits of either style. On major piping projects, the decision can have significant and far reaching impacts for the owner of the facility, from a cost, constructability, and operational point of view. The authors of this paper studied several recent projects in North America and Europe and performed a technical comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of each style of flange. The authors also performed a comprehensive estimate of the cost differential between using the different styles of flanges. The provision of both technical and economic data in one paper is intended to provide a resource of data that designers need to make an informed decision about which style of flange to use.


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