Proceedings

Wastewater treatment processes are known to use approximately half of the total energy of a water company, with significant impact on operational carbon footprint. Although not always easy to predict, it is our experience that 20 – 30% reduction in annual OPEX is often easily achievable.
Mott MacDonald saw this as an opportunity to offer operators, planners and asset managers a set of innovative tools that helps them to achieve Operational Efficiencies, and ultimately reduce carbon footprint (embedded and operational).

The Process Optimization and Energy Efficiency tools are a set of intuitive, stand-alone, running in realtime applications for dynamic diagnostics, targeting typical pain-points in WwTW, such as aeration, final clarifiers and pumps.

At Rotorua WwTW (New Zealand) the Standard Aeration Efficiency (SAE) tool provided an evidencebased approach to diffuser cleaning and deferral of the diffusers’ replacement, achieving significant energy savings. At Two Bridges WWTP (USA), the Clarifier tool helps operators managing the risk of biomass wash-out and maximize treatment particularly during storm conditions, by understanding in real time the used vs residual solids capacity in the system.