Investigation on energy conservation potentials and benchmarking for drinking water suppply schemes | |
| Author | Wijesinghe, Lalith |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.UWEM-13-02 |
| Subject(s) | Drinking water Water-supply Energy conservation |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Engineering in Urban Water Engineering and Management at the Asian Institute of Technology and the degree of Master of Science at the UNESCO-IHE |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Energy is consumed at every stage of the drinking water supply from raw water intake to service reservoir. Energy cost accounts for about 25% of the total operation and maintenance cost of a water utility. This research was focused on creating energy benchmarks for drinking water treatment unit processes and investigating the energy conservation potentials of water supply schemes. Preliminary energy audits were carried out in selected water supply schemes in Sri Lanka and Thailand to evaluate the specific energy consumption to benchmark the energy consumption of unit processes and to identify the energy conservation potentials. Detailed energy audits were carried out to evaluate the identified energy conservation potentials. It was found that in water supply schemes around 26 % of the total energy is consumed for raw water pumping and 70% is consumed for treated water and distribution pumping. Less than 3.3% of the total energy consumption is for the treatment of the surface water sources. The specific energy consumption for the treatment of surface water sources in Sri Lanka and Thailand context was found to vary between 0.003 kWh/m3and to 0.047 kWh/m3. Therefore any effort on energy conservation should concentrate more on reducing energy consumption of raw water and distribution pumping. The study established benchmarks for water treatment unit processes in the Sri Lanka and Thailand context. Filter backwash water recovery, modification of backwash frequency and modification of chlorinator system were identified as areas with energy conservation potentials in water treatment plants. Reduction of Non Revenue Water and improving the overall efficiency of pump and motor systems were identified as main energy conservation potentials with around 12% and 14% energy savings potentials respectively. |
| Year | 2013 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Civil and Infrastucture Engineering (DCIE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Urban Water Engineering and Management (UWEM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Chettiyappan Visvanathan; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Babel, Mukand Singh;Mohanty, Brahmanand;Sharma, Saroj Kumar; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | UNESCO-IHE;Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology - UNESCO-IHE, 2013 |