Quantitative assessment of energy and resource recovery in wastewater treatment plants based on plant-wide simulations
dc.contributor.author
dc.date.accessioned
2017-07-27T09:43:57Z
dc.date.available
2017-07-27T09:43:57Z
dc.date.issued
2017-07-01
dc.identifier.issn
0043-1354
dc.identifier.uri
dc.description.abstract
The growing development of technologies and processes for resource treatment and recovery is offering endless possibilities for creating new plant-wide configurations or modifying existing ones. However, the configurations’ complexity, the interrelation between technologies and the influent characteristics turn decision-making into a complex or unobvious process. In this frame, the Plant-Wide Modelling (PWM) library presented in this paper allows a thorough, comprehensive and refined analysis of different plant configurations that are basic aspects in decision-making from an energy and resource recovery perspective. In order to demonstrate the potential of the library and the need to run simulation analyses, this paper carries out a comparative analysis of WWTPs, from a techno-economic point of view. The selected layouts were (1) a conventional WWTP based on a modified version of the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 2, (2) an upgraded or retrofitted WWTP, and (3) a new Wastewater Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRF) concept denominated as C/N/P decoupling WWTP. The study was based on a preliminary analysis of the organic matter and nutrient energy use and recovery options, a comprehensive mass and energy flux distribution analysis in each configuration in order to compare and identify areas for improvement, and a cost analysis of each plant for different influent COD/TN/TP ratios. Analysing the plants from a standpoint of resources and energy utilization, a low utilization of the energy content of the components could be observed in all configurations. In the conventional plant, the COD used to produce biogas was around 29%, the upgraded plant was around 36%, and 34% in the C/N/P decoupling WWTP. With regard to the self-sufficiency of plants, achieving self-sufficiency was not possible in the conventional plant, in the upgraded plant it depended on the influent C/N ratio, and in the C/N/P decoupling WWTP layout self-sufficiency was feasible for almost all influents, especially at high COD concentrations. The plant layouts proposed in this paper are just a sample of the possibilities offered by current technologies. Even so, the library presented here is generic and can be used to construct any other plant layout, provided that a model is available
dc.description.sponsorship
The authors would like to acknowledge COST Action ES1202: Conceiving Wastewater Treatment in 2020 e “Water2020” and RedNovedar (CTQ2016-81979-REDC). The authors wish to thank Dr. Miquel Rigola from the Laboratory of Chemical and Environmental Engineering (LEQUIA) for his help and suggestions. S. Puig and M. Poch would like to thank the Spanish Ministry (CTQ2014-53718-R) and the University of Girona (MPCUdG2016/137) for their financial support. LEQUIA has been recognised as a consolidated research group by the Catalan Government (2014-SGR-1168)
dc.format.mimetype
application/pdf
dc.language.iso
spa
dc.publisher
Elsevier
dc.relation
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MINECO//CTQ2014-53718-R/ES/TECNOLOGIAS INNOVADORAS PARA LA MEJORA DE BIOGAS: DESDE LA INVESTIGACION BASICA A LA EVALUACION DE TECNOLOGIAS/
dc.relation.isformatof
Reproducció digital del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2017.04.001
dc.relation.ispartof
© Water Research, 2017, vol. 118, p. 272-288
dc.relation.ispartofseries
Articles publicats (D-EQATA)
dc.rights
Tots els drets reservats
dc.subject
dc.title
Quantitative assessment of energy and resource recovery in wastewater treatment plants based on plant-wide simulations
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.rights.accessRights
info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
dc.embargo.terms
Cap
dc.date.embargoEndDate
info:eu-repo/date/embargoEnd/2026-01-01
dc.type.version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.identifier.doi
dc.identifier.idgrec
026699
dc.contributor.funder
dc.relation.ProjectAcronym
dc.identifier.eissn
1879-2448