Economic methods and calculation tools for sewage treatment plants


Projekttitel: Joint Research Programme “Adaptation of wastewater treatment and water reuse technologies to specific technical, institutional and financial conditions”,
Main Project C "Simulation und concepts for waste water treatment",
Sub Project C 0 "Economic methods and calculation tools
for sewage treatment plants and co-ordination of the Main Project C"
Project Manager: Prof. Dr. Dr. Karl-Ulrich Rudolph
Co-operation Partner: RWTH Aachen; RU Bochum; TU Darmstadt; FHOOW Emden;
LU Hannover; IFAK Magdeburg; TU Munich
Sponsor: BMBF - PTKA-WTE
Reference number: 02WA0736
Project Term: May 2006 - December 2009


Within a BMBF-sponsored Joint Research Programme on the adaptation of wastewater treatment to specific technical, institutional and financial conditions in different countries the current projects covers the work on the frame project regarding economic issues as well as the co-ordination of the Main Project C "Simulation und concepts for waste water treatment".

Further information about Joint Research Programme is available on the Joint Programme's website at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (German-language website).

Part A: Review of economic methods and calculation tools for sewage treatment plants
Decisions regarding alternate wastewater treatment technologies are based on technical and economic criteria. For the financial and economic assessments local and project specific conditions (e.g. life cycle assessment, sustainability) need to be considered in order to have a fair comparison. It is the objective of this research project to update existing methods and tools for engineers involved in this decision making process.

The research is structured in the following way: First, a review of existing economic methods and tools will be conducted. As a second step, these methods will be modified to account for the particularities of the wastewater sector. Also, cost functions for different treatment technologies will be derived from literature. Finally, the project results will be validated by applying the tools and methods to a reference project.

In the end, these updated tools and methods shall assist decision makers in identi- fying the preferable solution in economic and financial terms taking into account sustainability and long-term quality issues.
Part B: Co-ordination of the Main Project C "Simulation und concepts for waste water treatment"
The co-ordination of the Main Project by IEEM includes defined duties like com- munication and co-ordination between the Sub Projects, the two Main Projects on treatment technologies and third parties as well as project control and reporting against the BMBF together with the other co-ordinators. An important task is the consolidation of the project results into the planned guide on the adaptation of wastewater treatment to specific conditions in different countries.