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Energy Optimization

For most water facilities, energy is one of the highest costs in their operating budget. Stricter regulations are pushing facilities to use even more advanced—and energy-intensive—treatment technologies. Optimizing energy use can provide huge cost savings and numerous additional benefits, including improving air quality, protecting the environment, and bolstering energy security. WRF has published more than 100 projects that explore ways to not only optimize current energy use, but to generate power as well—setting the course for a self-sufficient water sector.

Topic Overview (PDF)
78 Projects 9 Web Tools 4 Case Studies 2 Webcasts
Integrated Planning & Water Management
Resource Recovery
Anaerobic Digestion
Innovation
Project #5062

A Distributed Renewable Energy Opportunities and Policy Workshop

$30,550
Completed

Project Highlights

This project expanded on the results of project 4625 by holding a science to policy workshop connecting research, industry, and policy. The workshops engaged local, state, and national water and energy professionals in discussions on the opportunities for distributed energy...

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Principal Investigator
Steven
Conrad
Research Manager
Mr. Ashwin Dhanasekar

Energy is Embedded in Wastewater

This video discusses a suite of past WRF research co-funded by the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA), which focused on barriers to and strategies for energy optimization at water resource recovery facilities. 

Recent Updates

Project #4971
Leveraging the Role of Pretreatment Programs in One Water Initiatives:...

Reporting Period: November 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020. Recent progress focused on the development of...

Project Update
04/02/2021
Project #4969
One Water Cities: Development of Guidance Documents and Assessment...

Reporting Period: January 15 – October 15, 2020. Over the course of the reporting period the...

Project Update
12/07/2020
Project #4971
Leveraging the Role of Pretreatment Programs in One Water Initiatives:...

Reporting Period: April 1, 2020 – September 30, 2020. During this project period, the project team...

Project Update
11/20/2020
Project #5037
Evaluation of Existing Source Separated Organic Feedstock Pre-Treatment...

Reporting Period: March 1, 2020 – August 31, 2020. The project team spent the first six...

Project Update
10/30/2020
Project #5040
Successful Implementation of Decentralized Reuse ...

Reporting Period: February 15 – August 15, 2020. The literature review associated with Task 1 (State...

Project Update
09/08/2020
Project #4974
Holistic Approach to Improved Nutrient ...

Reporting Period: September 18, 2019 - August 20, 2020. The three in-person workshops have been reformulated...

Project Update
09/23/2020
Project #4915
Characterization and Contamination Testing of Source Separated Organic...

Reporting Period: January 1 – April 1, 2020. During this project period, progress was made on...

Project Update
09/02/2020
Project #4666
Case Study Compilation on Applying Risk Management Principles and Innovative...

The goal of this research is to develop case studies on strategies and tools for applying...

Project Update
07/10/2019

News

Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility

Featured Facility
Ana Pena-Tijerina
06/14/2019

Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility (VCWRF) has implemented numerous energy-related improvements by executing an Energy Savings Performance Contract with Johnson Controls, Inc.

WRF Announces 2020 Paul L. Busch Award Winner 

Press Release
10/01/2020

$100K Research Prize Will Advance Innovative Water Separation Technologies The Water Research Foundation announced today that Dr. Shihong Lin is the recipient of the 2020 Paul L. Busch $100,000 research...

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Resources

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Related Projects

Project #5062

A Distributed Renewable Energy Opportunities and Policy Workshop

Completed

This project expanded on the results of project 4625 by holding a science to policy workshop connecting research, industry, and policy. The workshops engaged local, state, and national...

View more details
Project #4788

State of the Science and Issues Related to Heat Recovery from Wastewater

Completed

This research explores the feasibility of recovering thermal energy from sewage, and what the state of current technology is for doing so, It is the first step identifying...

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Project #1416

Pathways to Energy Neutrality: Victor Valley Regional Water Reclamation Facility, California

Completed

This informative 13-page factsheet documents VVRWRF’s journey from aging facility with outdated infrastructure to one that incorporated energy neutrality as a utility-wide goal, allowing it to be named...

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Project #5091

Developing a Framework for Quantifying Energy Optimization Reporting

In Progress

Energy projects within the water sector are often discretionary and are initiated based on projected annual energy savings metrics. The water sector lacks standard energy savings estimation procedures...

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Project #4843

Integrating Sewage Thermal Energy Use (STEU) and Other Emerging Water-Energy-Waste Technologies into Decentralized/Distributed Systems

In Progress

The primary objective of this research is to organize and analyze information on sewage thermal energy use (STEU) and other emerging water-energy-waste technologies, including techno-economic analysis of these...

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Project #4900

Unlocking the Potential of Mixed-Microbial Fermentation for Enhancing Carbonaceous Resource Recovery from Organic "Wastes"

In Progress

Recovery of commodity materials from wastewater is a key function of water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) of the future, in which wastewater treatment is coupled with recovery of...

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Related Topics

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Resource Recovery

Link

Anaerobic Digestion

Link

Integrated Planning & Water Management

Link

Utility Management

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