Page 42 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Ecological Assessment
Life Cycle Assessment of Wastewater Treatment

2 Ecological Assessment

Use of Hydropower and

Biogas Energy in Waste

Water Treatment Plants

.
Serhat Kucukali, Irfan Ar,
Mümtaz Ak, and Asiye Günal

CONTENTS
2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................23
2.2 Anaerobic Digestion: Use of Biogas Energy in WWTP .................................24
2.3 Use of Hydropower in WWTPS .....................................................................25
2.4 Case Study: Tatlar WWTP .............................................................................27
2.5 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 31
References ................................................................................................................ 31

2.1 INTRODUCTION

After the enactment of Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, The Council
Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste water treatment, the installation of
waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) in Europe has been accelerated. Hence, the
amount of sludge production increased by over 62% between 1992 and 2005 (Méndez,
2005; Appels et al., 2008). Sludge production is increasing year by year parallel to
the increasing number of WWTPs, and moreover, the use of sludge in agriculture is
completely forbidden in some countries, such as the Netherlands, South Korea, and
Switzerland (Bachmann, 2009). Therefore, the lack of useful applications for sludge
has become a very serious problem, and this has driven research to focus on finding
a reasonable and environmentally friendly solution to this environmental problem.
Regarding this environmental concern, various technologies have been developed.
The most widely used ones are (Patricia Sinicropi, 2012)
Energy source: WWTP sludge

1. Anaerobic digestion → Energy products: biogas, compressed natural gas,
pipeline gas
2. Thermal conversion methods
i. Incineration Heat → Process heat
ii. Co-combustion Power generation
Syngas

23