Energy efficiency of wastewater treatment plant through aeration system

Abstract

High energy consumption affects the wastewater industry especially in our country since the utility bills for sewer services is subsidized by the government. It has been identified as a highest electricity energy contributed to the operational expenditure cost bare by the licensee operator company. Hence, a proper and effective solution is needed to reduce the amount of bill need to be paid by the company by decreasing the consumption of energy during operation. Through the energy audit conducted earlier, the auditor identified that there are several equipment or machine consume high energy. Energy consumption varies considerably between wastewater unit processes and facilities, but several other trends are also exist. Eventually, aeration seem to be proven as an element that consumes more energy compared to the other based on the energy audit report. In order to reduce the energy consumption in the aeration system, High Speed Turbo compressor is proposed to replace the existing roots blower. From the analysis that has been gathered from the case study which has been applied in one of the wastewater treatment plant in Malaysia, through the usage of High Speed Turbo compressor, it has been proven that the energy consumption might reduce up to 42% compared to the usage of roots blower. As per calculation, the expected return of capital expenditure will be within the period of 1.22 y which proved that the proposed system will not only affecting the cost efficiency, but also generates revenue in short period of time.