Improving Energy Efficiency of Small Water-Resource Recovery Facilities: Opportunities and Barriers
This article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYThis article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 7
Abstract
Approximately 80% of US centralized Small Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs) serve populations less than 10,000 and can be significantly less energy efficient (E2) relative to larger systems. This study’s purpose was to provide case studies of E2 in small WRRFs through documentation of unit process energy use (within four small WRRFs), E2 changes reported by operators following a project that provided E2 recommendations to 83 WRRFs, and investigate barriers to E2 through surveying of operators (including comparisons between systems of different size and E2 implementation). Aeration was the largest energy component (66%–73%) of total energy use and space heating can be significant (4%–35%). E2 changes were reported by 19 operators, and facilities with available bills exhibited energy reductions of 4%–35%. Variable frequency drive (VFD) installation and improved operations exhibited the largest savings. Application of an E2 benchmarking model for small WRRFs was effective for measuring E2 improvements in systems with varying flowrates. Responses from 66 operators expressed financial barriers and lack of time or other priorities as the largest barriers in making E2 improvements.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. This data will be stripped of identifiers and includes utility energy use data and barrier survey data.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Nebraska Energy Office (NEO). Additional support provided by the following agencies is also gratefully acknowledged: Nebraska Rural Waster Association, League of Nebraska Municipalities, and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (recently merged with NEO and now is the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy). The authors also would like to thank the survey respondents for providing their time and input into the study.
References
Abrahamse, W., L. Steg, C. Vlek, and T. Rothengatter. 2005. “A review of intervention studies aimed at household energy conservation.” J. Environ. Psychol. 25 (3): 273–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2005.08.002.
Bodkin, R., and D. Conklin. 1971. “Scale and other determinants of municipal government expenditures in Ontario: A quantitative analysis.” Int. Econ. Rev. 12 (3): 465–481. https://doi.org/10.2307/2525358.
Boller, M. 1997. “Small wastewater treatment plants—A challenge to wastewater engineers.” Water Sci. Technol. 35 (6): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.1997.0237.
Cardoso, B., A. Gaspar, and A. Gomes. 2019. “Energy audits and energy efficiency in small wastewater treatment plants: A case study.” In Proc., Int. Congress on Engineering and Sustainability in the XXI Century, edited by J. Monteiro, et al., 766–777. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30938-1_59.
Chini, C. M., and A. S. Stillwell. 2017. “Where are all the data? The case for a comprehensive water and wastewater utility database.” J. Water Res. Plann. Manage. 143 (3): 01816005. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000739.
Daw, J., K. Hallett, J. DeWolfe, and I. Venner. 2012. Energy efficiency strategies for municipal wastewater treatment facilities. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Foged, S. 2015. “The relationship between population size and contracting out public services: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in Danish municipalities.” Urban Affairs Rev. 52 (3): 348–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087415591288.
Foladori, P., M. Vaccari, and F. Vitali. 2015. “Energy audit in small wastewater treatment plants: Methodology, energy consumption indicators, and lessons learned.” Water Sci. Technol. 72 (6): 1007–1015. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2015.306.
Glock, C., and M. Broens. 2013. “Size and structure in the purchasing function: evidence from German municipalities.” J. Public Procurement 13 (1): 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-13-01-2013-B001.
Hanna, S., M. Thompson, M. Dahab, R. Williams, and B. Dvorak. 2018. “Benchmarking the energy intensity of small water resource recovery facilities.” Water Environ. Res. 90 (8): 738–747. https://doi.org/10.2175/106143017X15131012153176.
Hosni, A., G. Rust, K. Prior, and B. Dvorak. 2011. “Optimization of decentralized wastewater treatment plant’s pump design: A cost approach.” In Proc., ASCE EWRI Annual Conf. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Jaffe, A. B., and R. N. Stavins. 1994. “The energy-efficiency gap: What does it mean?” Energy Policy 22 (10): 804–810. https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-4215(94)90138-4.
Kerri, K. 1993. “A training program for operators of small wastewater treatment plants.” Water Sci. Technol. 28 (10): 43–48. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.1993.0203.
Kuppig, V. D., Y. C. Cook, D. A. Carter, N. J. Larson, R. E. Williams, and B. I. Dvorak. 2016. “Implementation of sustainability improvements at the facility level : Motivations and barriers.” J. Cleaner Prod. 139 (Dec): 1529–1538. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.167.
Longo, S., B. d’Antoni, M. Bongards, A. Chaparro, A. Cronrath, F. Fatone, J. Lema, M. Mauricio-Iglesias, A. Soares, and A. Hospido. 2016. “Monitoring and diagnosis of energy consumption in wastewater treatment plants. A state of the art and proposals for improvement.” J. Appl. Energy 179 (Oct): 1251–1268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.07.043.
Mann, H., and D. Whitney. 1947. “On a test of whether one of two random variables is stochastically larger than the other.” Ann. Math. Stat. 18 (1): 50–60. https://doi.org/10.1214/aoms/1177730491.
Michigan Water Environment Association. 2017. “Michigan’s wastewater treatment plants energy survey and estimate of energy baseline.” Accessed January 10, 2019. https://www.mi-wea.org/docs/2._Energy_Survey_Document_Final_20170329.pdf.
Nebraska Energy Office. 2011. “Nebraska energy codes.” Accessed January 5, 2019. http://www.neo.ne.gov/home_const/iecc/iecc_codes.htm.
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). 2017. “NOWData—NOAA online weather data.” Accessed February 7, 2019. https://w2.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=gid.
O’Malley, E., S. Scott, and S. Sorrell. 2003. Barriers to energy efficiency: Evidence from selected sectors: Policy research series. Dublin, Ireland: Economic and Social Research Institute.
Pabi, S., A. Amarnath, R. Goldstein, and L. Reekie. 2013. Electricity use and management in the municipal water supply and wastewater industries. Palo Alto, CA: Electric Power Research Institute.
Pakenas, L. 1995. Energy efficiency in municipal wastewater treatment plants: Technology assessment. Albany, NY: New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Peda, P., G. Grossi, and M. Liik. 2013. “Do ownership and size affect the performance of water utilities? Evidence from Estonian municipalities.” J. Manage. Governance 17 (2): 237–259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-011-9173-6.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. 2011. “Electric use at pennsylvania sewage treatment plants.” Accessed February 8, 2019. https://www.dvrpc.org/EnergyClimate/WSTP/Conference/pdf/ElectricUseReport.pdf.
Pirne, M. 2008. Statewide assessment of energy use by the municipal water and wastewater sector. Albany, NY: New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Public Commission of Wisconsin. 2016. “Energy best practices guide: Water & wastewater industry.” Focus on Energy Program. Accessed March 8, 2019. https://focusonenergy.com/sites/default/files/WW-Best-Practices_web.pdf.
Quayle, R., and H. Diaz. 1979. “Heating degree day data applied to residential heating energy consumption.” J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim. 19 (3): 241–246. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1980)019%3C0241:HDDDAT%3E2.0.CO;2.
Rohdin, P., P. Thollander, and P. Solding. 2007. “Barriers to and drivers for energy efficiency in the Swedish foundry industry.” Energy Policy 35 (1): 672–677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2006.01.010.
Salari, M., and R. J. Javid. 2017. “Modeling household energy expenditure in the United States.” Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev. 69 (Mar): 822–832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.183.
Shankle, D., J. Merrick, and T. Gilbride. 1994. “A history of the building energy standards.” Richland, WA. Accessed May 18, 2019. http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/10154655-hJOaZV/native/10154655.pdf.
Sorrell, S., J. Schleich, S. Scott, E. O’Malley, F. Trace, U. Böde, D. Köwener, W. Mannsbart, K. Ostertag, and P. Radgen. 2000. Reducing barriers to energy efficiency in private and public organisations, 194. Sussex, UK: Science Policy Research Unit.
Thollander, P., and M. Ottosson. 2008. “An energy efficient Swedish pulp and paper industry—Exploring barriers to and driving forces for cost-effective energy efficiency investments.” Energy Effic. 1 (1): 21–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-007-9001-7.
Trianni, A., E. Cagno, P. Thollander, and S. Backlund. 2013. “Barriers to industrial energy efficiency in foundries: A European comparison.” J. Cleaner Prod. 40 (Feb): 161–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.08.040.
USDOE. 2014. Premium efficiency motor selection and application guide. Washington, DC: USDOE.
US Energy Information Administration. 2016. “Commercial buildings energy consumption survey (CBECS).” Accessed March 6, 2018. https://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/data/2012/c&e/cfm/c14.php.
USEPA. 2010. Evaluation of energy conservation measures for wastewater treatment facilities. Washington, DC: USEPA.
USEPA. 2013. Energy efficiency in water and wastewater facilities: A guide to developing and implementing greenhouse reduction programs. Washington, DC: USEPA.
Wilcoxon, F. 1945. “Individual comparisons by ranking methods.” Biom. Bull. 1 (6): 80. https://doi.org/10.2307/3001968.
Wu, Y., S. Chow, A. Ganji, T. Xu, and S. Fok. 2017. “Evaluation of common practices of adopting energy efficiency technologies in municipal wastewater treatment facilities.” In Proc., BASE Energy, ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry. San Francisco: BASE Energy.
Yin, R. K. 1994. Case study research design and methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Young, D., and B. Koopman. 1991. “Electricity use in small wastewater treatment plants.” J. Environ. Eng. 117 (3): 300. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(1991)117:3(300).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 7 • July 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 4, 2019
Accepted: Dec 31, 2019
Published online: Apr 28, 2020
Published in print: Jul 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 28, 2020
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.