TY - JOUR
T1 - Techno-economic assessment of chp systems in wastewater treatment plants
AU - Riley, Derall M.
AU - Tian, Jiashen
AU - Güngör-Demirci, Gamze
AU - Phelan, Patrick
AU - Rene Villalobos, J.
AU - Milcarek, Ryan J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under award number DE-EE0007721.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) utilization of combined heat and power (CHP) systems allows for the efficient use of on-site biogas production, as well as increased annual savings in utility costs. In this paper, a review of biogas energy recovery options, CHP prime mover technologies, and the costs associated with biogas cleaning give a broad summary of the current state of CHP technology in WWTPs. Even though there are six different prime mover technologies, the main ones currently being implemented in WWTPs are micro turbines, fuel cells and reciprocating engines. Different prime movers offer varying efficiencies, installation costs, and biogas impurity (H2 S, siloxanes, HCl) tolerances. To evaluate the long-term savings capabilities, a techno-economic assessment of a CHP installation at a case study WWTP shows the payback, annual savings, and initial costs associated with the installation of a CHP system. In this case, a study a payback of 5.7 years and a net present value of USD 709,000 can be achieved when the WWTP generates over 2,000,000 m3 of biogas per year and utilizes over 36,000 GJ of natural gas per year.
AB - Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) utilization of combined heat and power (CHP) systems allows for the efficient use of on-site biogas production, as well as increased annual savings in utility costs. In this paper, a review of biogas energy recovery options, CHP prime mover technologies, and the costs associated with biogas cleaning give a broad summary of the current state of CHP technology in WWTPs. Even though there are six different prime mover technologies, the main ones currently being implemented in WWTPs are micro turbines, fuel cells and reciprocating engines. Different prime movers offer varying efficiencies, installation costs, and biogas impurity (H2 S, siloxanes, HCl) tolerances. To evaluate the long-term savings capabilities, a techno-economic assessment of a CHP installation at a case study WWTP shows the payback, annual savings, and initial costs associated with the installation of a CHP system. In this case, a study a payback of 5.7 years and a net present value of USD 709,000 can be achieved when the WWTP generates over 2,000,000 m3 of biogas per year and utilizes over 36,000 GJ of natural gas per year.
KW - Anaerobic digestion (AD)
KW - Biogas
KW - Combined heat and power (CHP)
KW - Fuel cells
KW - Gas turbines
KW - Internal combustion engine
KW - Wastewater treatment plant
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U2 - 10.3390/environments7100074
DO - 10.3390/environments7100074
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85091673740
SN - 2076-3298
VL - 7
SP - 1
EP - 32
JO - Environments - MDPI
JF - Environments - MDPI
IS - 10
M1 - 74
ER -