Across the province, wastewater treatment plant operators are feeling the pressure. They need to treat larger volumes of wastewater from growing populations, meet stricter standards and cope with more intense and frequent storms.
The question is how. Expanding facilities or building new plants requires big investments at a time when over-stretched municipalities are looking for ways to cut spending. On top of that, many simply don’t have space for expansion.
Rahim Kanji, Executive Director of the Ontario Water Consortium (OWC), believes the answer is process intensification. It’s an approach that uses systems thinking and a suite of innovative technologies to radically improve the efficiency of wastewater treatment. By addressing choke points, it allows existing plants to treat more wastewater — and to a higher standard — within their existing footprint.
Senior leaders at the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA) agree. “Process intensification is certainly a very strong tool in the toolbox,” says Iman Hashemi, the agency’s Vice President of Innovation and Infrastructure Solutions team. “There is an opportunity to raise the level of practical understanding of what wastewater intensification means to the range of municipalities that we provide solutions to.”
Therefore, on May 17, 2022, the two organizations convened a one-day initial workshop to raise awareness and discuss potential opportunities. The event attracted more than 60 people: technology providers, consulting engineers, academics, provincial government representatives and municipal end users from across the province.
New to Ontario, but not the world
Although wastewater treatment is a new application for process intensification, the strategy has been used in the chemical industry for decades. Meanwhile, many of the technologies have been tried and tested around the world. To showcase some of the possibilities, the workshop presented international and domestic success stories that ranged from simple to sophisticated.
In Denver, for example, the Robert W. Hite Treatment Facility’s shallow secondary clarifiers strongly limited the solids loading rate. To address this choke point, they adopted hydro cyclone technology that increased solid settling, significantly increasing throughput. As a result, they boosted their treatment capacity by more than 30 per cent.
In Singapore, the national water agency has created a digital model of the Changi Water Reclamation Plant. Powered by machine learning, it uses near-real-time data from the physical plant to provide insights and even control certain operations, increasing productivity and optimizing energy use and chemical consumption.
And in Eastern Ontario, a small but growing community that relied on lagoons to treat their sewage faced capacity issues and high ammonia levels. Instead of installing an expensive mechanical wastewater treatment plant, they opted for an integrated fixed-film treatment system inserted into the existing lagoon, creating more surface area for sludge-eating bacteria to flourish. The system improved cold-weather ammonia removal, allowed the lagoon to discharge continuously and increased capacity — all for less than half the cost of a mechanical plant.
An industry ripe for intensification
Of course, adopting any new technology brings risks. A morning go-around during the OWC/OCWA workshop revealed concerns about costs, regulatory barriers, learning curves, the challenge of getting buy-in, and worries about taking the wrong path.
But the list of hopes was far longer. Participants saw potential to reduce energy use, shrink their carbon footprint and recover valuable resources. They spoke about increasing the capacity, resilience and reliability of wastewater treatment plants while cutting capital and operating costs. And they were excited about the possibility of removing more contaminants and protecting the environment.
“The room was just buzzing with energy and positivity,” says Kanji.
While the morning focused on what process intensification can offer, the afternoon delved into how to apply it. Following a panel discussion, participants tackled hands-on case studies gathered from across Ontario.
Catalyzing ongoing conversations
Feedback on the workshop was overwhelmingly positive. Participants praised the storytelling approach that saw speakers ditch their PowerPoint slides and engage directly with their audience. They valued the insights from the presentations and round tables. Most of all, they appreciated the diversity of people and perspectives in the room and the opportunity to forge connections.
Those connections are exactly what the organizers set out to create, because innovation requires collaboration.
They hope the May workshop prompts ongoing conversations. Academics can help to demystify the science and technology behind intensification, reducing the barriers to adoption. Meanwhile, technology providers and consultants can work closely with end users to design and commission solutions tailored to meet municipal needs — especially the operational needs of small and medium-sized municipalities that often face the biggest constraints.
“We believe that this concept has a huge benefit to everybody involved,” says Indra Maharjan, who leads OCWA’s Innovation, Technology and Alternative Delivery team. “It’s just a matter of connecting these dots and stakeholders as an ecosystem.”
Many thanks to Suez Water Technologies & Solutions, who generously sponsored the workshop, and to the many area expert presenters who shared their knowledge and insights.
For more details on the event, download the full Workshop Report. If you are interested in participating in an OWC Action Group on Wastewater Process Intensification, please contact us at programs@ontariowater.ca.