ongoing

This project focuses on small scale waste water treatment plants and aims to develop a whole life cycle model and decision support toolkit

Project Insights

  • €74,992

    Total Project Costs
  • 1 yr

    Project Duration
  • 2015

    Year Funded

Project Description

The focus of this proposed desk study are Irish Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP). One important output will be the development of whole life-cycle models and a decision support toolkit for WWTP stakeholders that ultimately places the environment at the centre of decision making. Building on existing research, which focuses on benchmarking the resource efficiency of WWTP, the objectives of this study are: 1) Conduct and collate detailed research into the state-of-the-art of sustainable, holistic, low energy, solutions for the wastewater treatment industry, including the specific technologies that address the challenges of indigenous, smaller wastewater treatment plants; 2) Based on the state-of-the-art and current, ongoing research, assess operational efficiency and effectiveness opportunities and solutions for existing plants; 3) Assess the solutions (novel design technologies and novel solutions for existing plants) from the Irish perspective (size and spatial distribution of plants, climate and seasonal fluctuations, legacy under-investment, influent variations etc.); 4) Based on these findings, develop life-cycle models for pilot testing and demonstration; 5) Develop toolkit for model selection, implementation, life-cycle costing and environmental impact.

Project Details

Total Project Cost: €74,992

Funding Agency: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Year Funded: 2015

Lead Organisation: Dublin City University (DCU)

Lorna Fitzsimons

Lead Researcher