Providing affordable drinking water sources and reliable wastewater treatment has become a major challenge in many parts of the world. Escalating energy demands for wastewater treatment due to population growth and high living standards and the water demands for power generation combined with environmental degradation present complex and intertwined concerns for many local governments. On the other hand, water withdrawals for various uses have increased by 2-3 times that of population growth mainly linked with high living standards and urbanization. It is important now to examine the autarky of the individual systems in terms of energy and water resources. The autarky of the system defines the use of external sources required to sustain the processes intended for certain benefits. For example, wastewater treatment requires between 0.3 and 0.6 kWh/m<sup>3</sup> while the same contains an energy content equivalent to 10 times that required for treatment. Therefore, it is logical and rational to develop process configurations that would allow for extraction of this hidden energy to improve the self-sufficiency of the process. Similar approaches can be implemented for power generation systems as well. In this presentation, the potential for self-sufficiency of water-energy systems to provide a sustainable solution will be discussed. The self-sufficiency of these systems can be defined as the ability to support each other with minimal dependence on new resources. Utilizing renewable energy sources would further advance their independence from fossil-derived electricity. This paper will first describe the energy usage patterns in water and wastewater treatment systems and the water requirements for power generation systems followed by an analysis and discussion of potential pathways for achieving autarky among the systems for both water and energy production.

A few options for energy and water autarky in water-power systems

249th National Meeting (2015)

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