Comparison of the cost of the pressurized wastewater treatment process with other established treatment processes

A biological wastewater treatment unit under the influence of pressure was operated at pressures of up to 6 bar. It was demonstrated the capability of operating effectively with high carbonaceous oxidation and nitrification efficiencies at loadings of up to 13 g BOD m−2 day. Another advantage of the pressurized treatment unit was observed to be its low sludge production. The cost of the pressurized treatment unit has, however, become an important factor for the applicability of the pressurized treatment unit. An investigation was carried out to determine the approximate cost of a proposed full-scale pressurized unit. The comparison between the pressurized unit and the established treatment processes were made for three populations of 500, 1000 and 3000 persons. The costs were then compared with those of various other conventional biological treatment processes capable of treating an equivalent wastewater load. The conventional processes selected for comparison were the activated sludge, biological filtration and conventional RBC. The sludge disposal cost for the pressurized unit was appreciably lower than that for the other processes. The results indicated that the cost of the pressurized unit (present value for a 20-yr period) and the costs of the activated sludge and conventional RBC processes were found to be similar for the smaller populations. However, a substantial saving could be obtained with the pressurized unit for the larger populations. In addition, there was an indication that the land requirement of the pressurized treatment unit decreased appreciably as the flow rate increased.