Topic outline

  • General

  • Key Figure collection for Benchmarking

    Regional benchmark for smart sludge management was developed by IWAMA project through surveying more than 65 plants from Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus and Germany. The WWTPs contributed with answers on the loads to be treated and treatment efficiency, general inflow parameters and overall sludge treatment situation.

    Collecting the key figure data from WWTPs in the region was done through a questionnaire listing different parameters of plans. The results of the benchmarking the wastewater treatment performance were published as the Report on Key Figure Data Collection For Sludge Management.

    The report supports water sector professionals in the Baltic Sea Region providing general information on the regional situation, technical details on the processes applied in the region, and facilitates decision-making process. Benchmarking of the status of wastewater treatment plants helps in detecting possible performance gaps that can be further improved. Large deviations from the regional average indicate a demand for a detailed sludge audit in order to identify the potentials for optimization in the treatment and disposal process. For this purpose, free self-audit tool (available below) was developed.

  • Audit concept for smart sludge management

    The audit tool was developed to measure the effectiveness of the process applied at wastewater treatment plants and outline the potential for improvements of these plants. The audit tool provides an opportunity for operators to perform self-auditing at their WWTPs, and thereby improve sludge handling, and detect measures for both short and long-term improvement of the treatment process.

    The audit tools analyse efficiency and feasibility of smart sludge management taking into account such factors as full process analysis, on-site energy measurements, sludge handling technology and flows, chemical consumption, automatic calculations of operational parameters and others. Most of the results are shown in comparison with the data collected for the benchmark, which enables comparability of the achieved values with other plants and developed benchmarks in the Baltic Sea Region.

    First sludge management audits in order to develop the audit tools were performed on 9 WWTPs (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany).

    The audit concept considers regional and technological peculiarities, which increases the potential of practical application of the tool. Based on achieved results, WWTPs can obtain knowledge about important operational parameters and possibilities for the improvement of the process including optimisations leading to higher energy production, lower energy consumption and reducing loads of hazardous substances and nutrients in the effluent.