People Leverage Technology To Transform Plant Processes
By T.R. Gregg, Director of Business Development & Marketing, Huber Technology
Regardless of how the many wastewater treatment plants across North America and the world are configured, their missions are the same. At the core of their operations, these facilities are charged with maximizing the efficiency of managing their wastewater and water resources. They are equally responsible for making sure that this takes place in ways that are pleasing to the EPA with the ultimate goal of protecting the resources that its citizens will depend on for years to come. To accomplish their missions, people at the industry’s most productive and efficient facilities have gone about the business of transforming their plant processes using technology.
Core Area Transformations
If you get down to the brass tacks, transformations really focus on the four key areas with the most significant impacts on operational results: Costs, Quality, Reputation and Safety.
Looking at each of these through real life examples, paints a clear picture of how technology drives each plant’s ability to produce the best results in each key area of impact.
Costs
Costs surface across plant operations in several ways that go far beyond the actual purchase and implementation costs of equipment or technologies. In fact, when you look at “other costs”, especially when compared to the life cycle of the purchased equipment, you’ll find the “other costs” to be greater. It is easy, then, to see why reducing the “other costs” is critical to improving efficiencies in plant operations.
Mooresville, North Carolina
Putting belt dryer technology in place slashed the Mooresville North Carolina Wastewater Treatment Plant’s annual sludge handling budget of $449,000 by $200,000.
LaCrosse, Wisconsin
The LaCrosse Wastewater Treatment Plant grit disposal costs were so tremendously reduced by implementing grit washing technology that they no longer need a dedicated haul-off person. They have the impressive metrics to prove their savings:
- Tons of grit at $65 per yard = $7530 per year
Reduced by 79% to
- Tons of grit at $12.50 per yard = $600 per year
North Las Vegas, Nevada
The Membrane Bioreactor Plant (MBR) in North Las Vegas has a proven cost saver in its drum screen. The screen is the final barrier that protects the 3900 membrane strands than make up the bioreactor cassettes from build-up that can snowball into disaster when hair and other matter gets to the cassettes. Each cassette costs about $250,000 to replace. Replacing them all? $15 million. The drum screen does an excellent job at screening out the harmful elements so their impact to the strands is never felt.
Hill Canyon, California
For Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plan, screening technology cleans out contaminants at the headworks and transforms the remainder of their treatment process — even eliminating the need for downstream components such as choppers and pumps. Because there is less haul-off, the facility’s truck traffic has been reduced significantly. Landfill costs and surcharges associated with heavy, wet, dirty and sometimes hazardous loads.
Quality
Quality — in its good or poor form — touches every part of the wastewater treatment process. Whether it is the quality of the screens’ performance at the headworks or the quality of the biosolids as they reach treatment completion, this factor is critical in defining the remaining factors of reputation and safety. This is one instance where the junk in - junk out theory is just plain false. There is practically nothing but “junk” coming in — what with the fecal matter, debris, hair, rags, grease, and so on, entering the headworks. But it is amazing that through man’s wisdom, chemistry, gravity and — yes — technology some pretty amazing results come out the other end.
Havre, Montana
Installing rake screening technology at the City of Havre Wastewater Treatment Plant has enabled the removal of such high percentages of inorganics and grit that downstream processes are more effective and the components are less stressed. Even offensive odors are eliminated because most of the waste is taken out at the headworks.
Hill Canyon, California
The screening technology at Hill Canyon helps the team work their magic on their flow with less contamination throughout the process. The screens do an efficient job of removing everything that doesn’t make clean water by starting in the headworks. The sand and grit end products are cleaned at such a level that they are no longer offensive.
North Las Vegas, Nevada
The permeate produced by the North Las Vegas MBR Plant is an order of magnitude cleaner than what most cities have for drinking water. In almost every demonstration comparison, NLV’s permeate is selected as the cleaner choice even when compared to bottled water. The center feed drum screen integrated into NLV’s process is mission critical to the facility’s ability to maintain such quality standards.
San Diego, California
At the San Diego Wastewater Treatment Plant, sludge screening technology is a key component in the improvements in the end-product sludge. The amount and consistency of the hair, plastics and grease that their previous process allowed through made it impossible for digesters to adequately mix the flow.
Reputation
Reputation takes on diverse appearances around a wastewater treatment plant. Whether it’s very obvious odor-related improvements or contributions back to community or better quality permeate flow from the plant, wastewater treatment plants can delight neighbors, be good community citizens and save their municipality money — or not. The way the public perceives its treatment facilities really depends on how the plant leverages technology and innovation.
San Antonio, Texas
Sludge screens at the San Antonio Wastewater Treatment Plant’s receiving stations enable the city to provide an attractive, convenient means for legal dumping. The efficient working of the screens greatly reduces odors, pests and the mess that is associated with typical receiving station equipment and has made trips to the station a much more pleasant and safe experience for drivers.
Havre, Montana
Because of the rake screen technology installed at Havre’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, the facility is neighbor-friendly. Surrounding communities are no longer forced to tolerate offensive processing odors. The improvements driven by this technology have moved the plant from the Stone Age to the Modern Age. Because of these results, the public’s perception of the plant and their processes has vastly improved.
San Diego, California
The Point Loma Wastewater Treatment plant in San Diego has improved the efficiency of its process so much that it produces much more of a higher quality of methane gas in its digesters. The plant uses this gas internally to generate electricity. However, the plant now produces enough surplus to sell methane gas energy to the electric grid — powering more than 2000 homes per month. What a boost to plant reputation!
Safety
Improvements to plant safety supersede all else — especially because OSHA is involved. Beyond compliance, the impact that a safer work environment has on employee morale is astounding. And it is a proven fact that employees with positive morale also perform at higher levels and stay in their jobs longer. So having methods that are focused on heightening facility and process safety are always going to attract attention.
Mooresville, North Carolina
Belt drying technology at the Mooresville NC Wastewater Treatment Plant has made the sludge handling process much safer for employees. Innovations in the technology make it possible for the process to take place at lower temperatures. Instead of requiring an operational 300-800˚F, the plant’s new process operates at 190-200˚F. Lower temperatures also reduce the potential for burn injuries and explosions.
Oostburg, Wisconsin
At the Oostburg Wastewater Treatment Plant, the new hands-off process that the vertical fine screen technology enables keeps the potential for injury to employees at an all-time low. The system washes, dewaters and compacts solids in a single step and sends them directly to barrels through a continuous bagging process.
LaCrosse, Wisconsin
LaCrosse put grit washers in place that use a self-contained process that delivers inorganics removed from their grit directly to their treatment process without human intervention and therefore eliminates any potential splash or load car related mishaps.
Santa Barbara, California
The City of Santa Barbara’s screenings washpress is a completely contained process that keeps the plant work environment much safer and healthier since exposure to considerable quantities of hazardous fecal matter is so greatly reduced that it is now a non-factor.
When you can accomplish safety improvements in combination with ones in reputation, quality and costs, it is pretty amazing for the facility. But what about being able to drive improvements across the boards? That is the magic facilities are after and our examples are proof-positive that it is possible if skilled people have the best tools and technologies for the job.
Layers of Impact
The strategic impact of wastewater treatment plant operational transformations can be seen on the organizational level as well as the industry level.
For wastewater treatment facilities and the municipalities they serve, improvements in the areas of costs, quality, safety and reputation has been game-changing. When the public and regulatory boards have positive perspective of these services, everyone wins. Funds for improvements are more readily provided and bonds are more positively viewed and passed.
Improvements also include making useable by-products available to the public at minimal or no costs — and even turning some material rated previously as hazardous waste into revenue generating products.
Cleaner flow-off and less offensive emissions give the facilities the chance to be a good neighbor to its community and garner fewer complaints from citizens.
As an industry, wastewater treatment facilities can look to these improvements as leverage to change the public’s understanding of what they do and how much they improve the quality of water resources it uses and the waste that it produces.
Wastewater treatment technologies of today require diverse skills and greater understanding of chemicals and software — as well as mechanics and engineering. New interest in careers in wastewater treatment are diverging from many more subject matter areas that ever before and that diversity in itself helps the industry to improve so that the future will continue to see more and more innovations in the way we treat and dispose of or reuse what was once waste.
Tied To Technology
It’s no secret that technology is one of today’s greatest enablers. We can do and learn more from each process that takes place and we can get it done more efficiently and effectively than ever before. Technology can help to drive costs down and quality up — and even produce new revenue generation opportunities where we would have never imagined them before. It can make work environments safer and operate with less offensive processes and results and attract notice from its neighboring citizens. But the technology — regardless of its automation or innovation — can produce none of these amazing results alone. It takes leadership from people who understand the use and the value of these technologies to get the best results from them.
T.R. Gregg has a 25-year history in the wastewater treatment technology industry and is enjoying his tenth year as Huber Technology’s Director of Business Development & Marketing. Huber Technology serves the municipal and industrial wastewater treatment market with high quality liquid-solid separation technology. [www.huber-technology.com]