Delgado, Francisco M.

Bollas, Shiela Mae T.

Gavia, Joshua M.

English 3E (MH 4:30-6:00pm)

CEIT-02-302P
Prof: Ms. Sandra Villamayor

Optimization of Equipment Used in Wastewater Treatment Plant

Before discharging the wastewater from certain sources (such as factories, sewage
treatment plants, golf courses, underground mines and other infrastructures) the chemicals and
contaminants must be removed based on the standard set by the government in order for it to be
disposed of without danger to human health or unacceptable damage to the natural environment.
The government and the owner of businesses aimed to create cost effective wastewater treatment
plants to minimise total resources costs to the area over time to meet the standard and treatment
requirements. Resources costs include capital (construction and lands), operation, maintenance
and replacements, and social and environmental costs.
Through the development of machineries and equipment, the number of Wastewater
Treatment plants has increased. One concern issues with regards to building wastewater
treatment plant is the energy consumption and the efficiency of equipment used. The
optimization of certain equipment must be done in a wastewater treatment plant even in factories
and machineries for the economic and environmental benefits of the plants. Aging equipment
and those that are not checked regularly are more inefficient, can be costly to repair, and
typically requires more energy than newer models.
Before optimizing the individual equipment, the whole treatment plant must be functional
and designed well. First, 1one must hire an expert with regards to the treatment plant to be built.
Hiring reliable experts is not a big cost in designing the treatment plant. In order to reduce the
construction costs and to maximize the given land, one must have an experienced civil engineer
to design and build it. 2When the treatment plant is already built, the operator must evaluate the
energy consumption on an on-site survey to identify operational needs, maintenance, and
deficient equipment. This will reduce the time and costs to avoid further damage and
inefficiencies to the machineries involved. 3Then, the facilitator should commission the facility.
Commissioning is a process to make sure that the equipment and other systems involved are
designed, installed, tested, and capable of being operated and maintained according to the needs
of owners operation and the facilities will be recommissioned every three to five years to
maintain the optimal performance. Commissioning has 9 elements/ factors to consider:
1. Planning as without proper planning we will not be able to commission a plant safely and
in good time manner
2. Mechanical completion ( MC) which is the time that commissioning team takeover the
system from QC of the construction team

3. Piping and instrumentation checking ( PID checking ) which means that commissioning
engineers verify that every pipe , device and instrument are in the field as outlined in the
approved PID
4. Precommissioning, and it means that each item can work safely under the commissioning
stage, it includes cleaning of all pipes by different means like air plowing , flushing .
Mechanical cleaning of vessels and tanks and ensure no load for motors and others.
5. Commissioning and it includes for example introduction of utilities , dry tests , wet run ,
hot run based on the type of the industry, it includes safe flow dynamic testing , solving
dynamic testing and process flow test, in this step it is expected that many problems
appears and it must be solved before the next stage
6. Start-up which means that the entire plants will be taken to full operation , in water
treatment plants it means that all units of screen , grits removal , odor control , aeration ,
secondary sedimentation , SAS and RAS pumps , scum pumps and filter belt press will
work together as whole unit
7. Initial operation which including the preparation of performance test for the whole
WWtps , during it , optimization for the process will be take place and adjustments for
pumps and other equipment can be occurred
8. Performance testing and it include proofing that the effluent of wastewater treatment
plants meets the regulation under normal operating conditions
9. Post commissioning , the engineers will take care of any grade c elements of the punch
list which are problems that dont affect the operation or the process immediately , it
many take long time due to the lack of the finance which occurred usually at the end of
many projects
4

Reducing the energy consumption reduces the resource costs. To reduce the energy
consumption, it is effective to plan for an energy monitoring system. This will help optimize the
facilities and maintain the efficiency of each machine. The operator can install low-cost wireless
sub meters to help facilities gather additional consumption data. The information gathered can
now be analysed with one of the energy information software products to provide a thorough
chart of energy use and help the performance of facility to be optimized in its full potential
possible. 5 Then, upgrade the Aeration System. Substantial Energy saving and efficiency can be
achieved by installing alternative aeration system technologies (like turbo blowers) for a
Wastewater Treatment Plant. Turbo-blowers offer 82 per cent efficiency compared to the
common types of blowers-such as multistage centrifugal blowers- which can only offer nominal
efficiencies of 65 to 70 per cent only. Also, the operator can also switch to Light Emitting Diode
(LED) for lighting fixtures. LED bulbs are especially suited for cooler outdoor temperatures
where they can interact easily with lighting controls. LEDs are also found to emit more uniform
lighting distribution and less light pollution. Operators should regularly evaluate the condition,
performance and remaining useful life of equipment. A cost effective and energy efficient
wastewater treatment plants must have equipment that are optimized and functioning well to

treat water before discharging back to the environment. Furthermore, it will give more advantage
towards the reduced possibilities to cause water pollution and should follow the recommended
microbiological and chemical quality standards at low costs to avoid risks to the quality of
natural resources and to improve proper discharge of waste water back to the bodies of water.

References:
http://www.commissioningcoach.com/ (2016) Source: Ahmed Omar
https://bizenergyadvisor.com/members/BIZ-NC-3-ESCDx-ESCD/Wastewater-Plants
(2015)
Energy Consumption in WWTPs in China, Tao Xie and Wang Chengwen (2012)
http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/19680/software-tools-enable-energy-savings-atwastewater-plant