Estimation of Energy Recovery Potential from Primary Residues of Four Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants

Eleni P. Tsiakiri, Aikaterini Mpougali, Ioannis Lemonidis, Christos A. Tzenos, Sotirios D. Kalamaras, Thomas A. Kotsopoulos and Petros Samaras
Additional contact information
Eleni P. Tsiakiri: Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Geotechnical Sciences, International Hellenic University, GR-57400 Thessaloniki, Greece
Aikaterini Mpougali: Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Geotechnical Sciences, International Hellenic University, GR-57400 Thessaloniki, Greece
Ioannis Lemonidis: Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Geotechnical Sciences, International Hellenic University, GR-57400 Thessaloniki, Greece
Christos A. Tzenos: Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Sotirios D. Kalamaras: Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Thomas A. Kotsopoulos: Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Petros Samaras: Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Geotechnical Sciences, International Hellenic University, GR-57400 Thessaloniki, Greece

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-14

Abstract: Wastewater treatment plants have been traditionally developed for the aerobic degradation of effluent organic matter, and are associated with high energy consumption. The adoption of sustainable development targets favors the utilization of every available energy source, and the current work aims at the identification of biomethane potential from non-conventional sources derived from municipal wastewater treatment processes. Byproducts derived from the primary treatment process stage were collected from four sewage treatment plants in Greece with great variation in design capacity and servicing areas with wide human activities, affecting the quality of the influents and the corresponding primary wastes. The samples were characterized for the determination of their solids and fats content, as well as the concentration of leached organic matter and nutrients, and were subjected to anaerobic digestion treatment for the measurement of their biomethane production potential according to standardized procedures. All samples exhibited potential for biogas utilization, with screenings collected from a treatment plant receiving wastewater from an area with combined rural and agro-industrial activities presenting the highest potential. Nevertheless, these samples had a methanogens doubling time of around 1.3 days, while screenings from a high-capacity unit proved to have a methanogens doubling time of less than 1 day. On the other hand, floatings from grit chambers presented the smallest potential for energy utilization. Nevertheless, these wastes can be utilized for energy production, potentially in secondary sludge co-digestion units, converting a treatment plant from an energy demanding to a zero energy or even a power production process.

Keywords: screenings; fats; biogas potential; wastewater treatment plant; energy utilization; anaerobic digestion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7198/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7198/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:13:p:7198-:d:583192

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().