Role of Flexible Operation of a Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Reduction of Its Indirect Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Role of Flexible Operation of a Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Reduction of Its Indirect Carbon Dioxide Emissions—A Case Study

Published:2024-02-01 Issue:3 Volume:16 Page:483
ISSN:2073-4441
Container-title:Water
language:en
Short-container-title:Water

Author:

Topuz Nilüfer¹²,Alsmeyer Frank¹^ORCID,Okutan Hasan Can²^ORCID,Roos Hermann-Josef³

Affiliation:

1. SWK E² Institute for Energy Technology and Energy Management, Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, 47805 Krefeld, Germany

2. Synthetic Fuels & Chemicals Technology Center (ITU SENTEK), Ayazaga Campus, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, Istanbul 34469, Turkey

3. Krefeld Disposal Company EGK, 47829 Krefeld, Germany

Abstract

The increasing share of renewables in electricity grids comes with a challenge of energy surpluses and deficits, which needs be handled by demand side management (DSM) and storage options. Within this approach, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), with flexible energy consumption and production processes and storage units, can contribute to stabilizing the grids and integrating more renewables. In this study, the operation of a real WWTP was optimized by mixed integer linear programming (MILP) to minimize its indirect carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The operation of the WWTP was shown to be flexible in following the CO2 emission factor of the electricity grid, which was possible with the utilization of the WWTP’s storage units and flexible co-substrate feeding. As a result, by changing only the operational behavior of the WWTP, its indirect CO2 emissions decreased by 4.8% due to the higher share of renewables in the electricity grid. The CO2 emissions were shown to decrease further up to 6.9% by adding virtual storage units.

Publisher

MDPI AG

Link

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/16/3/483/pdf

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