Transforming Wastewater Systems As Community Resource

Wastewater systems exemplify the intersection of energy, water, land-use, and food production and are increasingly being viewed for the resources they provide. These systems are unique in that they possess opportunities to reduce community energy use and generate on-site energy as a byproduct of their operations. Further, biosolids generated as a result of the wastewater process have beneficial uses as land amendments for agriculture and landscaping purposes, providing additional value streams that can further reduce utility operating costs.

Energy use can account for as much as 10% of a local government’s annual operating budget. While communities closely track costs associated with treating wastewater, more granular information on the specific energy, transportation, and land use implications associated with these costs is less understood. There is also poor availability of data to assess the effect of policy and operational decisions related to water conservation and reuse, treatment process optimization, new technologies, on-site energy generation, transportation, and land application of biosolids.

In this work, NREL brought together a diverse energy dataset from organizations such as the Water Environment Federation, Water Research Foundation, Electric Power Research Institute, NYSERDA, EPA, and universities to understand the broader implications and opportunities related to wastewater systems. This study considered the impact of domestic trends such as population growth, urbanization, new industries, aging infrastructure and climate change on wastewater systems and their broader implications on energy, water, land and food production. The resulting tool that was developed can be used to help inform policy and operational decisions for communities