Sustainability and Energy Management for Water Resource Recovery Facilities

Global climate change, volatile energy prices, and other potential forces of change, require water resource recovery facility designers to plan and design facilities that are sustainable—less costly to operate and maintain over a facility’s full life cycle and more resilient to near- and long-term change.

This companion to Design of Water Resource Recovery Facilities, MOP 8, describes the best practices for evaluating and improving the energy management and sustainability of WRRFs. It includes an assessment of commonly used sustainability frameworks and guidance on the practical application of sustainability concepts at key decisions points during the planning, preliminary design, final design, construction, and operational phases of WRRF capital projects. The strategies, tools, and references that are discussed are globally applicable and will help the reader plan projects that meet today’s expectations of facilities with: significantly reduced energy consumption, modern automated equipment with less downtime, lower operation and maintenance costs, resiliency to weather extremes, lower chemical inputs, and marketable products through resource recovery.