Energy-Positive Operations—City of Los Angeles Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant

The city of Los Angeles’s Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant’s (HWRP) Bio-Energy Facility (HBEF) has operated since 2017 as part of the HWRP Digester Gas Utilization Project (DGUP). The project makes full beneficial use of the HWRP’s generated digester gas (biogas). The biogas, prior to combustion, is conditioned by removing H₂S and siloxanes through a desulfurization facility and a two-stage regenerable media and activated carbon scrubbing process, respectively, and then pressurized to 2,750 kPa and conveyed to two combustion turbines for power generation. The conditioned biogas is also blended with natural gas to supplement the HWRP’s power generation in a “load following” operations scheme. A system of two combustion turbine generators, two heat recovery steam generators, and one steam generator produce up to 32K kg/hr of steam at 690 kPa for the HWRP’s solids digestion process and up to 27 MW of power generation. This renewable energy power generation by the HBEF reduces the plant’s dependency on the electrical grid. Furthermore, all cooling water for the HBEF is provided in a single pass configuration through the use of secondary effluent generated by HWRP. The HBEF’s emissions controls exceed the latest air emissions standards by incorporating oxidation catalyst and selective catalytic reduction systems for CO and NO_x emissions control, respectively, significantly limiting the environmental impacts of a combine cycle cogeneration facility of this magnitude and scope. The project has won numerous awards including the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision Platinum award and “2018 Outstanding Wastewater Project, Region 9” by the ASCE.