Is Ammonia-Based Aeration Control Worth the Effort?

Ammonia-Based Aeration Control (ABAC) can be successfully implemented at smaller water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). The authors conducted a pilot test at the 23-ML/d (6.1-mgd) Water Recovery Facility (WRF) in City of Westfield, Massachusetts, to demonstrate the benefits and impacts of ABAC. The goals were to quantify the energy savings, understand impacts on biological nutrient removal, identify other process and maintenance impacts, and calculate a return on investment (ROI) of implementing ABAC. A positive ROI was realized by the Westfield WRF, but this will not necessarily be true for all smaller WRRFs. Importantly, the pilot test reinforced that successful implementation of newer technologies like ABAC needs ownership by the operators and must build on fundamentally sound process operations and control to fully realize the return on investment.