Wastewater Treatment and Process Water Recycling Systems

This Project proposes to demonstrate the benefits of the installation of a wastewater treatment system designed to reduce the amount of energy and water consumed at a dairy. The demonstration results will identify pumping energy reduction, water savings, reduced water intake from wells through the reuse of recycled water, and GHG opportunities. The Project will outline the treatment requirements based on sizing calculations conducted in the system design, commissioning and M&V data collections.

The main objective from this study is implementing on-site wastewater ideas that can reduce a sites total energy consumption, by eliminating or drastically reducing the need for offsite wastewater facilities; thus, helping SCE meet California’s 2045 decarbonization goals, by reducing the need for pumping. This study will be used to help pave a path towards custom solutions for on-site wastewater treatment devices. Currently, most end users send their wastewater to nearby offsite wastewater treatment facilities, which can be costly as it requires transporting, pumping, and service fees. Some dairy facilities use a lagoon, located on their property, to dilute their wastewater and irrigate low-level crops. These new technologies are designed to be an on-site wastewater treatment system that can remove a majority of containments in the wastewater efficiently, allowing facilities to expand their reuse of wastewater in other areas such as drip irrigation, drinking water, facility maintenance, etc., by helping customers reduce their energy demand from pumping extra amounts of water from a water table, as well as, help facilities reduce their water demand and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This white paper is being prepared with the intentions to help with future custom codes, bringing technology awareness, and help drive on-site delivery. In this white paper, we are determining the energy savings and demand reduction over incumbent technologies for multiple devices that all focus on on-site wastewater. Water Reuse New wastewater technologies can treat and reduce containments in the wastewater on-site, allowing facilities to reuse the wastewater in other areas, such as, returning to drip irrigation from flood. ENVIRO can reduce 99.9% of solids, 64% of Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN), and over 90% of phosphorous and nitrates below the levels mandated in the state of California, potentially eliminating the use of dairy lagoons (WTG, 2019).The ClearCapture technology, marketed for Food & Beverage facilities, can help these facilities to recover up to 80+% of its wastewater to be reused on-site by removing approximately 90+% of solids and 40-60% of organics in the water. Effluent from this system was tested at a cheese processing facility, where it was determined to be safe for animal consumption (ClearCove, 2016). In addition, BioFiltro’s BIDA system allows for on-farm recycling of water due to its ability to remove 85% of the total suspended solids (TSS) and 80% of Nitrogen from dairy wastewater. This major benefit allows facilities to increase the number of animals allowed on a farm, switch from low to high level crops, change of land use, reduce their water demand, and reduce the odor from manure (BioFiltro, 2019). Dairy and other animal farms typically transfer their wastewater to a dairy lagoon, where it is diluted with fresh, clean water from the water table in order to return to drip irrigation. Using AST technology, the water savings is the amount of water needed for dilution, helping facilities to take water directly from the flood and into the drip irrigation. The CLARA system has a 67% removal rate of TSS, allowing farmers to reuse their effluent for drip irrigation or in other areas within the facility. Additionally, the CLARA system can reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium loading. Energy Savings These wastewater technologies also contribute to reduce energy usage through more efficient processing techniques and the avoided electricity use embedded in the water saved through treatment. Embodied energy consists of all energy inputs into a unit of water required for production, treatment, transport, and any other work that would need to be done to bring the water to its final end use destination. A reduction in water required on-site results in less water that must be imported from outside sources, and pumping water is a significant contributor to embodied energy. ENVIRO purports to use only approximately 25% of the energy of typical wastewater treatment through its combination of processes that can be applied directly at the point of use in a highly mobile and scalable fashion. ClearCove’s ClearCapture and Harvester technology serve as more effective primary treatment systems to reduce organics and waste to reduce the load and energy use for downstream secondary treatment, leading to savings of up to 50% over traditional methods. As a secondary benefit, the ClearCove technology increases the capture of methane and biogas byproducts which can be used for on-site energy generation to further offset energy usage. The technology EcoVolt, utilizes its supplemental on-site power generation, while BioFiltro and AST significantly increase the proportion of on-site reusable water to provide energy savings through a reduction in embodied energy. Current Market California has been the nation’s primary leader in milk production, having 33% of U.S. dairy exports [and producing] 18.5% of U.S. milk (Real California Milk, 2020). The state currently has 1,750 dairy farms that houses 1.79 million milk cows [each producing] 22,000 pounds of milk in a recent year (See California, 2017). In 2017, Tulare county was the highest milk producer in California, with more than 27% of the state’s milk production (Real California Milk, 2020). To add, the state has approximately 127 digester projects with 34 of those projects currently operating and 93 in development (Dairy Cares, 2012).