Abstract
One of the pressing issues currently faced by the water industry is incorporating sustainability considerations into design practice and reducing the carbon emissions of energy-intensive processes. Water treatment, an indispensable step for safeguarding public health, is an energy-intensive process. The purpose of this study was to analyze the energy consumption of an existing drinking water treatment plant (DWTP), then conduct a modeling study for using photovoltaics (PVs) to offset that energy consumption, and thus reduce emissions. The selected plant, located in southwestern United States, treats 0.425 m3 of groundwater per second by utilizing the processes of coagulation, filtration, and disinfection. Based on the energy consumption individually determined for each unit process (validated using the DWTP’s data), the DWTP was sized for PVs (as a modeling study). The results showed that the dependency of a DWTP on the traditional electric grid could be greatly reduced by the use of PVs. The largest consumption of energy was associated with the pumping operations, corresponding to 150.6 Wh m−3 for the booster pumps to covey water to the storage tanks, while the energy intensity of the water treatment units was found to be 3.1 Wh m−3. A PV system with a 1.5 MW capacity with battery storage (30 MWh) was found to have a positive net present value and a levelized cost of electricity of 3.1 cents kWh−1. A net reduction in the carbon emissions was found as 950 and 570 metric tons of CO2-eq year−1 due to the PV-based design, with and without battery storage, respectively.
Highlights
There has been an increased emphasis on including sustainability into water infrastructure design and reducing the carbon emissions of water-related processes [1,2]
The determined energy consumption was used as an input for the System Advisor Model (SAM) modeling study to simulate the performance of the solar PV, with and without battery storage, for meeting the electricity requirements of the plant
The results of this study include the actual design of the unit processes of the drinking water treatment plant (DWTP), the determination of the associated energy consumption (Section 5.1), and simulating the techno-economic performance of a PV system as an energy source for the DWTP (Section 5.2)
Summary
There has been an increased emphasis on including sustainability into water infrastructure design and reducing the carbon emissions of water-related processes [1,2]. One way to achieve these goals is to incorporate renewables into the operation of water and wastewater treatment plants in order to offset their energy consumption. Through photovoltaic conversion, is a promising way to meet the world’s future energy demands. Solar energy helps reduce dependence on fossil fuel-based energy sources, as well as reduce environmental pollution, including carbon emissions, caused by fossil fuel use [3,4,5]. The energy consumption of a small drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) was analyzed; a techno-economic assessment for using solar photovoltaics (PVs) was conducted to offset that energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions. In the United States, there are about 60,000 small and large DWTPs, and about 15,000 wastewater treatment facilities, which consume about 3%–4% of the overall energy [6].
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