This project contributes to the area of energy management of wastewater treatment
processes. An important goal is the improvement of cost-attractiveness of wastewater
treatment facilities when maintaining high level of efficiency. The chosen way to achieve
this goal is through application of the energy integration concept. Killarney wastewater
treatment plant and in particular, the sludge treatment part of it was chosen as a case study
for the aerobic treatment investigation. This choice was supported by the fact that the
Autothermal Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion (ATAD) type of sludge treatment, used in
Killarney, is quite suitable for average size settlements, but is energy intensive compared
to other treatment concepts. The project succeeded in proving the following hypothesis:
Energy efficiency can be improved applying heat integration principles. For this case study
an efficiency improvement of 11% can be achieved with minor redesign of the plant
including one heat exchanger, a storage tank and corresponding re-piping and control
system reprogramming. The payback period is 5 years with number of additional benefits
supplementing increased energy efficiency; including better dewatering of effluent, more
controlled foaming in the reactors, easier and quicker transfer of fresh sludge because of
improved viscosity, better odour control, quicker biodegradation because of the suppressed
thermal shock, etc. The project reports a number of other contributions: formulating a new
type optimisation problem of heat integration, plant flexibility improvement, achievement
of thermophilic temperature in both reactors, shortening the aeration and biodegradation
time.

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Zhelev, T.   "Energy Efficiency Improvement of Waste Water Treatment Processes Using Process Integration Techniques". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=fd872f97-083a-102c-930a-f07fa8cd0edb (Last Accessed: 2024-10-11)

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SAFER-Data Display URL	https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=94
Resource Keywords	waste-water aerobic digestion sludge efficiency energy process
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code	2005-ET-DS-21-M3
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme	Environmental Technologies
Resource Availability:	Public-Open
Limitations on the use of this Resource	Usage of this report is permitted provided the source of this report is properly cited in any further publications. The autmoted citation generated by SAFER-Data below is suitable for this purpose.
Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download):	4
Project Start Date	Thursday 5th January 2006 (05-01-2006)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Thursday 1st June 2006 (01-06-2006)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Sunday 31st December 2006 (31-12-2006)
Published on SAFER	Thursday 20th November 2008 (20-11-2008)
Date of Last Edit	Thursday 20th November 2008 at 11:23:41 (20-11-2008)
Datasets or Files Updated On	Thursday 20th November 2008 at 11:23:41 (20-11-2008)

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Description of Geographical Characteristics of This Project or Dataset
The case study plant for this research is the Killarney wastewater treatment plant where an ATAD (Autothermal Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion) sludge treatment is in place. the total Population Equivalent of the plant to 51,000. Storm tanks handle excess flow during periods of heavy rainfall. Today, the plant has three parallel secondary treatment systems. Final effluent is released via a local stream, called the Folly, into a nearby lake, Lough Leane. It is recognised as sensitive to eutrophication (S.I. No. 254 of 2001); therefore, nutrient removal must take place at the plant. Sludge processing is carried out by the onsite ATAD plant since 2000

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The following is a list of projects, datasets, and resources on SAFER-Data from which users downloaded attachments from soon after downloading attachments from this resource Energy Efficiency Improvement of Waste Water Treatment Processes Using Process Integration Techniques. You can view the full description for projects, datasets, and resources by using the links supplied.

• Critical Analysis of the Potential of Mechanical Biological Treatment for Irish waste Management View Full Metadata Description
• Anaerobic Digestion: Decision Support Software View Full Metadata Description
• Clarianna Rver Catchment - Raw Data Collection View Full Metadata Description
• CO2 flux data and meteorological data from UCC Flux Sites View Full Metadata Description
• Quality of Life and the Environment in Ireland View Full Metadata Description

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