Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Energy Consumption in
Waste Water Treatment
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DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP
This is all my own work except where I have indicated otherwise via references or
other forms of acknowledgement.
Signature: ………………………………….
Date: ……………………………………….
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Abstract
Waste water is water that has been used in domestically or industrially which
contains pollutants. A wastewater system includes all of the stages used to collect,
transport (sewers) and treat wastewater and rainwater from a town, industrial site
or private land before it is discharged into the natural environment. The
elimination by spreading, incineration or discharge of the sludge resulting from
the treatment processes used is part of the wastewater treatment process. In most
countries wastewater is found everywhere. 97% of the total world’s total water is
sea water and of the remaining fresh water, two-thirds of this freshwater is locked
in glaciers, ice or snow, leaving only 1% of the total water available for direct
human consumption. With the development in industry and population the amount
of wastewater generated has become a critical issue. The conventional methods
used in wastewater treatment aren’t sufficient with the growing demand for clean
water. New regulations that has been set for sludge disposal has an even bigger
impact into treatment methods and the cost of them has significantly risen, which
has lead to the field of wastewater treatment being researched extensively. The
use of natural resources like ultraviolet radiation and new developed technologies
has come into practise while being further developed, to meet the rising demand.
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CONTENTS
SECTION PAGE
1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1
6 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................... 22
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LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
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1 INTRODUCTION
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TABLE 1
CONSTITUENT UNIT OPERATION OR PROCESS
Suspended Solids Screening
Grit removal
Sedimentation
High-rate clarification
Flotation
Chemical Precipitation
Depth Filtration
Surface Filtration
Biodegradable organics Aerobic suspended growth
variation
Aerobic attached growth
variation
Aerobic suspended growth
variation
Aerobic attached growth
variation
Lagoon variation
Physical chemical systems
Chemical oxidation
Advanced oxidation
Membrane filtration
Nitrogen Chemical oxidation
Suspended-growth nitrification
and denitrification variations
Fixed-film nitrification and
denitrification variations
Air stripping
Ion exchange
Phosphorous Chemical treatment
Biological phosphorous removal
Nitrogen and phosphorous Biological nutrient removal
variations
Pathogens Chlorine compounds
Chlorine dioxide
Ozone
Ultraviolet radiation (UV)
Colloidal and dissolved solids Membranes
Chemical Treatment
Carbon adsorption
Ion exchange
Volatile organic compounds Air stripping
Carbon adsorption
Advanced oxidation
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3 DEVELOPED TECHNOLOGIES
The new development was done in order to make biological treatment more
economical and less energy consuming. A pilot plant scale (9m3/h permeate) has
been tested in Berlin Rubleben. Ultra filtration acts as the polishing step in
industrial wastewater treatment. Although ultra filtration combined with bio
reactor is state of the art for treatment of small scale treatment industrial effluent,
dumpsite leachate; over biology/sedimentation, it’s high energy consumption is
one of its disadvantages, which is about 10kWh/m3 permeate energy.
Rochem company, to get the specific energy consumption down to about 0.3 – 0.5
kW/m3 permeate designed the ultra filtration module [figure 1]with a feed channel
formed by 2 membranes and completely free of obstacles so that the flow pattern
is straight through.[figure 2]
For a permeate flux of 90 l/m3h the operational cost for energy is 4- 8%. An 8
week experiment was carried out in Berlin Ruhleben; where the ultra filtration
membrane was placed behind sedimentation and a sand filtration as a polishing
step and from results the specific energy consumption was found to be 0.2 – 0.3
kWh/m3. The estimated specific cost of ultra filtration step (including capital
costs) are 0.35 DM/m3 permeate. With that cost figure scale for UF replacing sand
filtration is feasible.
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FIGURE1
FIGURE2
TABLE 2
Part of plant Permeate Specific energy Total plant feed
flow rate consumption kWh/m3
process stage
kWh/m3 permeate
RO/ High pressure RO 35 4 2.8
60- bar RO
HD RO 11 17 3.74
NF/ High pressure RO 2.7 32 1.73
NF
RO
Water recovery 97.4% Total 8.27
The design is as shown in figure 3
FIGURE3
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FIGURE4
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FIGURE5
FIGURE6
FIGURE7
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Discharge consent standards both in the UK, Eire and Europe can be very
demanding. With new legislation restricting discharge of effluent to the sea and
increasingly rigorous standards for acceptable levels of nutrients such as nitrates
and phosphates in effluent the "High-Speed Bio Tec " system has been designed
to provide final effluent quality objectives (BOD5 <5 mg/l SS: <5 mg/l
Ammonia cal Nitrogen: <5 mg/l) consistently.[1]
Only one mechanical and electrical inspection is needed per week and its capacity
is 750 per (150 m3/d) and the plant dimensions are length 39 feet width 8 feet and
height 8 feet. Due to this the machine can be fit into limited space which makes it
ideal for the use in hotels, condominiums, military, golf clubs, airports, small rural
cities, residential areas.
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with the total population of 700,000. There are 4 main sectors of water demand,
which are domestic, agriculture, industry and other environmental issues. This
plant was designed according to the season changes in the country. The sunshine
In the area of the plant varies between 4.1 h/d in the winter (December/January)
and 12.3 h in the summer (July). This plant was build approximately 0.5kms away
from the residential area with a capacity of serving 500 persons with a flow rate of
36m2/d. It’s an activated sludge system and its characteristics are similar to those
of extended aeration one with simultaneous organic matter oxidation and nitrogen
removal by nitrification and denitrification.
The success of this method lies due to the use of the specially designed fluidized
bed of activated sludge layer where bio reactions and solid- liquid separation takes
place simultaneously. The total denitrification is 69.8% using this method and the
total project cost around 120 000 Euros. Reuse of waste water could be planned or
either unplanned. Planned reuse could be seen in countries such as Cyprus, Israel,
Tunisia etc and unplanned reuse in countries such as Jordan, Morocco, Algeria,
West bank, Gaza, Syria.
TABLE 3
Parameter Value
Equivalent population (persons) 300
Diameter (m) 2.40
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According to the above it is clear that for less sludge production and low use of
energy there is quite a remarkable amount of wastewater treated which is
economically viable for such countries. The treatment tank isn’t large which also
reduces the capital cost for such a treatment facility and also less use of land.
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Written By Anosha Koralage
FIGURE10
Nine environmental impact categories were included in the life cycle assessment
of the two methods which were, global warming, ozone depletion, human toxicity,
freshwater aquatic toxicity, photochemical ozone formation, acidification,
eutrophication, energy consumption, and land use. After the experiments were
carried out it was concluded that solar photo-Fenton is able to obtain
biodegradable effluent much faster than heterogeneous photo catalysis. This is
due to the fact that heterogeneous photo catalysis needs a larger solar collector
area when used in industry.
3.5.1 Heterogeneous photo catalysis
Photo catalytic degradation has been proved to be a promising method for the
treatment of wastewater contaminated with organic and inorganic pollutants. The
process, as a means of removal of persistent water contaminants such as
pesticides, which exhibit chemical stability and resistance to biodegradation, has
attracted the attention of many researchers in recent years. This can be defined as
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units of the adsorption based wastewater treatment system were similar to the
conventional wastewater treatment system except the aeration tank which is
replaced by the aeration-cum-adsorption tank. The difference of it is that the
aeration process was incorporated with adsorption by adding discarded material-
based mixed adsorbent carbon.
The residents use the government controlled system which was sufficient for most
of the year except during the peak summer when the electricity is disrupted. At
such instances conventional as well as non conventional sources were used to
supply the necessary energy. 30% of the operational cost was budgeted for energy
use. 15MJ pf energy per 1m3 of wastewater was needed using conventional
methods which in this case gave a total of 225MJ, as the rate of wastewater
produced per day in the village was 150m3. This was utilized as shown in table 4.
TABLE 4
Process Energy consumption (MJ)
Pre-treatment 10.125
Sump collection 23.175
Aeration and activated sludge process 125.1
Secondary clarifier in sludge processing 8.325
Processing and post aeration of the 19.35
treated water
Lighting of the plant 17.1
It is clear that the maximum energy intake in this system was for the aeration and
activated sludge process. In order to make it more energy efficient the system was
designed to minimize this energy intake introducing the aeration-cum-adsorption
column. This actually eliminates the need of a secondary clarifier and in place a
standby aeration-cum-adsorption tank was used. The motor needed for the
aeration-cum-adsorption tank was 0.6hp where as in the conventional method a
5hp motor was needed. As the secondary clarifier was also not needed the total
energy required for the adsorption process was 113.9MJ
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140
120 FIGURE12
100
80
60 Unit wise energy distribution in MJs for
40
20 conventional wastewater treatment plant for a
0
typical village like Bibipur (India) for a flow
rate of 150m3/day of wastewater.
70
60 FIGURE13
50
40
30 Unit wise energy distribution in MJs for
20
10 adsorption based wastewater treatment plant
0
for a typical village like Bibipur (India) for a
flow rate of 150m3/day of wastewater.
The total energy available in the village from all sources was 468205 MJ and the
requirement of energy for all activities in the village was 592220 MJ which was a
deficit in energy when conventional sources were used, but a surplus when
renewable/non-conventional sources were used. It could be concluded that hybrid
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system, bio gas, bio mass, diesel generator and electric power could be a suitable
answer to the energy requirement/supply for waste water treatment systems in
such areas as Bibipur.
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Although membrane bio reactors were better than conventional methods the
disadvantage of this process was the high energy consumption and membrane
fouling. The normal energy consumption for a traditional wastewater treatment
facility is normally between 0.3 – 0.4 kWh/m3 where as this method has a rate of
6 – 8 kWh/m3 of energy being consumed. The normal mode of operation is the
cross flow mode; the new development was to use transverse flow to enhance
filtration capacity and to prevent fouling. By creating a 2 loop connection between
the bioreactor and the transverse fibres sitting perpendicular to the direction of the
feed flow [fig10], resulted in generating turbulence themselves which consumed
less energy and the membrane area.
The power requirement in the system could be divided into 5 sectors which are
energy consumed by oxygen supply aeration tank, pipeline system, membrane
module, by pump and by velocity energy lost. The low energy consumption was
achieved by the use of the transverse membrane and the low recirculating flow
rate between the reactor and membrane module. Normally 80% of the energy is
converted into heat for membrane filtration as this energy is used for recircling in
the cooling system. The step taken in this instance is to design the recirculation
loop so that the cooling device is unnecessary and also to reduce velocity energy
exit loss.
FIGURE16
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Apart from the energy efficient processes there are other factors that could be
taken into consideration in order to reduce energy used in wastewater treatment
plants. DSM is one of these methods which mean actions that a utility may take to
control or influences its customer’s electricity use. DSM includes the control of
power requirement, conversion, and energy efficiency. It is defined for DSM to be
any opportunity a wastewater treatment plant has to reduce total energy cost. By
means of generating electricity on-site; reducing the amount of electricity
purchased from the utility, shifting electricity use to off-peak hours and using
alternative fuels and treatment technologies. Using a turbine generator for the
flowing efficient or parallel to the pipeline is a good way of generating energy as
shown in figure 10. Electricity could be generated onsite by means of fuel, natural
gas, fuel oil which could be produced anaerobic sludge digesters.
Aeration electric demand and energy consumption could be reduced by using
fine-pore diffused air systems and aeration process controls lowering sludge age
(mean cell residence time). Sludge management has become and increasing
problem and costly for many municipalities. Waste heat can be rewarded to use in
sludge management and plant heating and cooling. The cost per year in the New
York City for sludge was $250 and about $220 per dry ton. In general the water
content of the sludge has a direct impact on the cost of hauling, land filling,
composting and pelletizing it. Lower water content leads to lower operating costs.
FIGURE17
How a treatment plant’s effluent
could be diverted to a hydropower
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generating station to produce
electricity
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There are quite a few ways of reducing the energy consumed at the stage of
aeration. This could be achieved by methods such as bubble differentiation, fine
pore systems, maintaining and cleaning the diffusers, sludge age reduction. The
fine pore system can reduce the energy consumption from 40%- 50% and overall
life cycle cost from 10 – 20% compared to other diffused air systems. The capital
cost of a fine-pore aeration system will be higher but the total annual cost will be
less than the total annual cost for coarse bubble aerators. There are however a few
drawbacks in this method
6 CONCLUSION
The future will be dominated by unrelenting demands for increasing quantity and
quality of reuse water, produced at decreasing costs. The largest application has
been to provide water for irrigation where pathogenic risk minimization is the
primary consideration. However the need for membrane filtration to produce a
high quality water source for either industrial or aquifer recharge has emerged as a
major application over the last 10 years.
The electrochemical treatment is an established method with possible further
development in the improvement of space- time yield. The newly developed
stable and active electrodes for oxygen evolution would definitely boost the
adoption of this technology. On the other hand solar energy is one of the most
widely researched topics in the field of wastewater treatment and many other
processes. This is due to the fact that solar energy is widely accessible and to
extract the energy an extra cost shouldn’t be incurred apart from the cost for the
machine and apparatus. One of the draw backs of this method is that they could be
used only in sunny regions. Countries which has seasonal changes and especially
with a heavy winter wouldn’t be able to use this technology throughout the year.
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In countries that such as the Middle East who has scarce water resources the
improvement of wastewater collection or upgrading of the existing water collection
systems would benefit the population to face the wastewater problems.
Wastewater treatment technology is a rapidly developing field which has a vast number
of researches being carried out. The main concern of all treatment facilities is to design a
treatment facility which is economically viable and less energy consuming and that has
the minimum impact on the environment.
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