Costs of Advanced Treatment in Water Reclamation

Removal of trace organic contaminants (TOrCs) provided by advanced water and wastewater treatment inevitably requires additional financial costs, which must be estimated to support utility planning. This study presents conceptual-level (Class 4) capital and operations and maintenance (O&M) cost curve equations to aid evaluations of advanced treatment trains. Unit processes include microfiltration/ultrafiltration membranes (MF/UF), nanofiltration/reverse osmosis membranes (NF/RO), ozone (with or without hydrogen peroxide, H2O2), ultraviolet (UV) treatment with H2O2 (UV/H2O2), and biological activated carbon (BAC). The cost curves indicate that membrane treatment represents the highest cost unit process, ozone the least. Unit process costs may be added to provide an estimated cost for combined advanced treatment trains. Additionally, the cost of increasing ozone dose relative to the expected increased TOrC destruction is estimated to increase TOrCs destruction to greater than 80% for the majority of TOrCs at capital and O&M cost increases of 4 and 18%, respectively.