The Seafield Wastewater Treatment Works plant in Scotland achieved a 85% energy self-sufficiency throughout 2017. The plant was able to successfully increase its onsite power generation from 55%.
The plant, which processes roughly 300 million liters of wastewater every day. The 2017 energy achievement has cut the facility’s energy cost by 50%.
The COO for Water at Veolia, John Abraham, believes this is a step in the direction of inevitable electrical self-sustainability for the water industry.
“Recent estimates indicate that the water industry could be self-sustaining for electricity by harnessing the 11 billion liter annual flow of wastewater,” Abraham said. “Our application of technology to this process demonstrates how we can help deliver greater sustainability for the industry using wastewater-to-energy systems, and also meet water industry carbon reduction targets.”
To operate the system, an anaerobic digestion plant provides sludge that provides power along with biogas found at the plant itself. This specific powering approach allowed the plant to operate entirely independent of the grid at several points throughout the year.
The plant is able to utilize this sludge by employing a variety of methods to extract the power that it provides. Of the various processes utilized, the plant has increased its biogas output by 10% by implementing a thermal hydrolysis process while also installing an additional combined heat and power system to more efficiently use their increased biogas yield.