The power plants consumes significant amount of fresh water. A wet cooling tower in a 500 MW thermal plant consumes upto ~ 4 mgd of freshwater. As such, the thermal plants account for nearly ~40% of the total freshwater withdrawals in the United States. It has been reported that the Power Plants in Eastern US consume more water than in the Western counter part. The goal of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of a novel bioelectrochemical module as an alternative to aerobic processes in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), potentially resulting in a reduction in energy consumption of up to 50% in a typical waste water treatment plant and a reduction in sludge production of at least 50%. Residual (macromolecular) chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sloughed particulates (including microbes) in the effluent of the biomodule will be treated through membrane ultrafiltration (UF), yielding a high-quality effluent for subsequent reuse in power plants.

Feasibility of integrated bioelectrochemical/membrane technologies for wastewater reuse in power plants

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.