Reducing Energy Consumption at Drinking and Waste Water Sites

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How to reduce energy consumption & increase the awareness of unnecessary energy usage across drinking and waste water sites?

I work for a high energy user, relying on electricity for most of our processes and treatment activities. Energy is one of our largest operating costs and as a result, we now face a significant energy consumption challenge.

Whilst we have already started to make our sites more efficient with the introduction of renewable energy generation, I am seeking ways to further reduce our energy consumption for the future.

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21 Answers

  1. Here are some resources to manage energy in the W&WW sector.  Any questions, feel free to contact me.

     

    Energy Conservation in Wastewater Treatment Facilities, Manual of Practice No. MFD-2, Water Environment Federation, Alexandria (VA), U.S.A.

     

    Best Practices for Energy Management, Water Research Foundation, Denver (CO), U.S.A.

     

    Energy Efficiency in the Water Industry: A Compendium of Best Practices and Case Studies

    Global Water Research Coalition, London, England

    Toolbox for Water Utility Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emission Management

    Water Research Foundation, Denver (CO), U.S.A.

    New York State Energy Research & Development Authority, Albany (NY), U.S.A., & Global Water Research Coalition, London, England

     

    Water & Wastewater Industry Energy Best Practices Guidebook, Focus on Energy, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

     

    Self-Audit of Wastewater Treatment Processes to Achieve Energy Optimization; Report No: CEC 500-11-003, California Energy Commission

     

    Evaluation of Dynamic Energy Consumption of Advanced Water and Wastewater Treatment Technologies, California Energy Commission and Water Research Foundation

     

    Energy Index Development for Benchmarking Water and Wastewater Utilities, California Energy Commission and Water Research Foundation

     

    Public-Private Partnership Opportunities for Water and Water Resource Recovery Utility Energy Projects, Water Research Foundation and Water Environment & Reuse Foundation

  3. Hi Daniel,

    I have developed an innovative technology "ABR" based on BIOREMEDIATION under Anoxic environment. it is tried to treat wastewater discharged in ponds, lakes, river as well as in Wastewater Treatment Plants to reduce the organic load in WWTP and save electricity. The treatment process is very simple and cost effective & completely electricity free. Nearly 60 projects have been completed based on this technology.

    I'm completing an e-book based on this topic and shortly going to publish online. Once it's done I'll inform you to know more details about this process.

  5. Hi Daniel

    I work for a company called Bactest and we make a product called Shepherd which exists for this very reason!

    Shepherd  is an Activated Sludge Monitoring and Management System that floats in an activated sludge lane and automatically samples every 60 minutes calculating an accurate BOD5 proxy every hour. This is displayed on the control panel adjacent to Shepherd so operators can take action to reduce aeration. In addition Shepherd transmits data to a Cloud based dashboard that can be accessed via the web and gives process engineers and managers a “bird’s eye” view of all of the plants where Shepherd has been deployed. Hourly emails from Shepherd mean that remote plants can be easily monitored without costly visits.

     

    Uniquely Shepherd gives plant operators hourly information that enables them to turn the blowers down saving electricity and carbon footprint.

    Shepherd can also identify toxic events and on a typical plant (100,000 PE) over a 5 month period

    Shepherd predicted potential savings of over £40,000 pa and has identified:

    • Five ops issues (e.g. heavy rain, RAS stopped, blower malfunction)
    • Three toxic events (incl. primary sludge carry over) 
    • Four equipment failures (mixers, blowers)

    In addition Shepherd:

    • Had no ragging or fouling
    • Required not maintenance
    • Was extremely robust

    If you'd like more info get in touch - http://www.shepherdmanagingthefloc.com/contact-us

  8. Hi Daniel, Depending on the system currently being used, you might like to consider using our Nanobubble technology which can significantly increase delivery of gas (guaranteed 90% gas transfer in one pass) and in so doing bring significant savings to energy costs. If interested let me know and I will send you some details. Best wishes, Tony Humphreys Nanobubble Solutions

  9. Hello the only possibility to save energy it completely is the treatment of biological treatment of excrement. It eliminates all of the excrement, requires no emptying of the system, maintenance is limited to biological functioning, there is no handling or transport, it requires no palliative treatment. It is more productive

    1 Comment

    1. Yes, biological treatment of excrement is the most appropriate way to mange waste. In fact the waste is no more waste but resource, anaerobic digestion is  a way forward. We have tried with Paper Recycling Effluent generating 350kw Electricity from the biogas produced by treating 80m3/hr effluent from the mill. Conventional DAF was projected to require  about 100kW

  10.  Hi Daniel, PTG Water & Energy helps wastewater treatment facilities reduce their energy footprint and related costs by combining onsite energy generation and efficient heat-based disinfection. Please navigate to www.ptgwe.com  for more information. Best, Tim Kingsbury

  11. @ Mr Daniel: Most items listed by Mr Radhakrishanan: are absolutely essential. Besides, water /waste water quality and nominal power rating of various equipment is also required to frame an optimal strategy.

    BTW, have you checked the PF and considered using VFD's for applications where friction head dominates?

  13. Energy usage in Water and Waste Water is plant and process specific. For the most of the facilities the major energy requirement is for the pumping for the process or transportation.  Pump System Optimisation with precise sytem anlyses may significantly reduce the consumption.

    Aeration is another energy guzzler, we have developed a proprietory system that significantly  reduces the blower loads even for the most demanding suspended solid influent.  I may be  contacted on sarfraz@mahykhoory.com  

    I believe conservation is far more effective than generation, as a unit saved is more effective than a unit saved. Another significant outcome of Energy efficiency is system reliablity and reduced maintenenance cost. 

    1 Comment

    1. Hello

      Here we're talking original - biological elements-. Water, organic matter, urinates it, the biochemical components. I see nowhere in all of these explanations of the reactions produced by the technical action. He must know one thing: when man intervenes on biological - process - this one is stopped and mother NATURE begins the process of putrefaction. This process is irreversible and has as advantage to produce methane. Except that this production has implications on the environment without resolving the issue of the elimination of feces. On paper you can do anything. But at what cost and what result? 

  14. Hi Dan,

    I am not surprised that your W&WWT sites are very energy intensive.  In fact, the 2nd biggest expense for such facilities is energy cost after staffing; and ironically pump and motor systems are the biggest culprit toward this expense.  Good thing is that you are addressing this issue.  RE generally comes after implementing energy efficiency measures (EEMs) and demand side management (DSM).  EEMs help reducing both energy usage and associated costs while DSM helps operators reducing energy costs by shifting consumption from on-peak hours to off-peak hours, if the facility is on such tariff structure.  If you don't implement EEMs, RE simply reduces your demand on the grid electricity but doesn't reduce consumption.  A few years ago, I managed a program to reduce energy consumption at California's W&WWT facilities; and frankly the out come was very impressive.  So I think I can guide you where to start from and how to get to the end point.  If you are interested, please contact me: sfc95823@yahoo.com.  By the way, I am not selling any services or products; just trying to help you using my extensive experience in this field.

    Shahid Chaudhry, Senior Engineer / Water-Energy Nexus Spec.

              

  16. Use of Turbo blowers against Root blowers energy saved 25 to 30% of requirement in Aeration process in wastewater treatment. Higher Capital cost will also recovered in about two to two and half year. thereafter it start to generate saving of money in terms of power saving.

    1 Comment

  17. A bio digester is an excellent idea. There are 2 benefits. If you select an RNA microbial group to do the digesting you will no longer need any chlorination. A simple biogenerator would be able to collect the electrons created during the breakdown process. No pathogens and ready to become potable water again.  No need for two systems. 100% recycling of water.  Many other  useful byproducts .

    1 Comment

    1. Hi Guy McGowen - thanks for responding to my question.  Are you able to send me some information or links to bio digesters that have very large scale application.  I cannot find any that would suit our needs online but if you believe you may have details of products that might fit my needs please do send me the details.

  18. If you are running a wastewater plant why not using a digester, creating biogas that will run the generators to give you "free" power to run the whole system WTP and WWTP together. This is not new and is used in many countries.

    3 Comments

    2. As far concern with domestic Sewage treatment, with any anaerobic process bio-gas can be generated but it has a limitation and which can not provide self sustained run of whole STP. It can hardly satisfy about 25 to 30% requirement if digesters are sucessfully operates.

  19. There are so many ways o reduce power consumption.

    Basic information required, whether it is new project or existing project.

    To study and suggest a better solution, the following information is required.

    Details of Pump houses, machinery in treatment plants and other equipment.

    Please provide the details so that a better solution can be suggested by members.

    1 Comment

    1. Hi RADHAKRISHNA MURTHY GUNTUPALLI - thank you for your reply.  This is part of an on-going project to reduce ​energy ​consumption & ​increase the ​awareness of ​unnecessary ​energy usage ​across Drinking ​and Waste Water ​Sites. 

      We have a large number of diverse and complex sites and due to nature of commercial sensitivity I am wary about posting that information in such an open forum.

      Instead I am hoping that by posting a question on this platform I will be able to glean innovative solutions by interacting and learning from the experiences of professionals around the world.

  20. I had already told in various forums 2 things: Micro filtration can save lots of energy and water if in case the water does not have high salinity, in which case you need a membrane filtration run on power. Otherwise, gravity filtration would do. Second on STP, if there is source segregation of the water, the toilet one and the bathing, washing one both through separate lines, we would do insitu bio-digestion, bacterial treatment good enough to clean the water when it reaches the ground. The concept called STP can be done away with!

    1 Comment

    1. Hi Chandrasekaran J.  - thank you for responding.  Interestingly enough the company that I work for are currently in the process of building a new WTW in our operation area, and is the first of its kind in the UK.

       It will use innovative and cutting edge water treatment process designed and developed by Dutch water technology company PWNT.  The new technology features SIX suspended ion exchange with resin regeneration system, ILCA inline coagulation and CeraMac C90 ceramic membrane microfiltration

      Here is a link to an article which should provide a bit more background: http://wwtonline.co.uk/news/sww-gives-an-inside-glimpse-of-mayflower-wtw/3826?utm_source=WWT+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=6724f4420f-WWTonline_Daily_news_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3464b7a083-6724f4420f-102334561#.WcEiUdKWwpE

      1 Comment reply

      1. Hi Daniel Carthew, interestingly, I have a fellowship running with Open University under Royal Academy of engineering and we are presently working on textile dye alleviation from river water dumped with textile toxic dyes. Now we propose to have some work on these lines we discussed above. Would you email me your profile and a synopsis of how different your technology is to me by email? Thanks chandra@watsan.in

  21. Hi Daniel

    The large numbers of assets employed e.g. blowers, pumps etc  consume the majority of the energy. The challenge is how to maintain the  asset operation at the most efficient point as opposed to the unit deteriorating and using more energy to achieve the same result.I am working on a new product which allows site users to complete intelligent question sets to provide evidence based data on how assets are performing. The surveys are completed using a simple mobile app and the data entry is simplified with drop downs, pick lists etc to improve accuracy. Once the data s received in the Quality console the asset manager can check how the assets are performing against the original specification. e.g a pump how kW, Flow, Head . The questionnaires are intelligent and depending on the answers can prompt other question sets, so from the data provided it can calculate efficiency and then prompt questions to check inlet /outlet valves are not restricted, suction head is correct etc . This application is scaled for large utility operation with many thousands of assets and interfaces to the asset data register 

    It allows a condition based view of all the assets to be collected at quarterly intervals and the asset performance tracked to identify those requiring interventions.

     

    Have a look at our website www.clearhorizon.com for more details 

    3 Comments

    1. Hi David Paul Watkins  - many thanks for your reply.  The product you have mentioned sounds very interesting, is the app going to be compatible across different platforms (IOS/Android/Blackberry)?  I have taken a look on your website, I would be interested in being sent more information. 

      I am trying approach the problem reducing our energy consumption from a behavioural change perspective.  Whilst I agree that continual analysis of asset ​performance ​is key, I believe that it goes hand in hand with changing the operational behaviour of staff  across our clean & waste water functions.

      Education and using innovative thinking towards solving this problem will go a long way to helping achieve the cost saving measures that are required within the industry.

    2. As far as  concern with the  use of blowers , In stead  of conventional blowers, if Turbo blowers are used, It saves 25% power in aeration. High capital cost of Turbo blowers can be covered in two and half year and therafter it start to save money by saving of power.

    3. Definitely need continuous energy analysis of operating facilities. Derived energy data will be measured against cost in terms of performance and form basis other decisions as mentioned. It is an extensive process. Most WTP costs comes from processes related to water heating , air conditioning and rotating equipments. Employing an energy analyst can provide necessary recommendations.