Peak Amplification of Energy Demand, Energy Cost, and Carbon Emission in Water Reclamation and Purification Processes during Diurnal Cycles

Due to the fluctuations of different environmental parameters, the energy footprint of water reclamation and purification processes has a dynamic behavior during diurnal periods. Among the influencing factors, hydraulic load and constituent load have the highest diurnal impact on the energy footprint of the biological activated sludge process during water reclamation, and energy intensive membrane processes (e.g. reverse osmosis) during water purification. Besides the diurnal energy footprint variations, the energy-associated carbon emission also is facing a variation among the portfolio of energy sources employed by power supply agencies in different hours of a diurnal period. During the night, the carbon intensity of the unit power generation is lower due to a higher contribution of clean-source energies; while during the daytime, fossil fuel-source power has a bigger contribution in fulfilling the power augmented demand.