Maximizing Flexibility with MBR to Reduce the Long-Term Cost to Operate

The largest costs in water and wastewater projects are generally the long-term cost to operate, or cost of service (COS), over the initial capital investment for the planning, design, construction, and commissioning of new facilities. Therefore, decisions made during the delivery of the project have the greatest potential for influencing the ability to reduce the initial and long-term COS. Future decisions regarding optimization and/or expansions are also important and influence the COS, but the biggest influence remains with the initial vision, goals setting, and design decisions. Success in this approach requires input and consideration from a diverse group of perspectives, that can both holistically identify the myriad of concerns and expectations, and that can quantify and contextualize the impacts on budget, schedule, constructability, performance, safety, and COS. This paper shares insights from a project case study where the techniques and approach used throughout the project led to maximizing the flexibility and minimizing the COS of a new water reclamation facility (WRF), utilizing membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology, by focusing on the development of the guiding project goals and basis for decision making, utilizing the following three criteria: • Maximize the ease of operation • Minimize the effort to sustain the quality of the effluent • Minimize the cost and interruption for future expansions The outcome of multiple phases of this project, staying true to the guiding project goals and decision principles, resulted the ability to sustain a high level of performance, compliance and maintaining the ease of operations, with no service interruptions during an expansion of the WRF that increased the capacity by 2.65 times in Phase 2, and returned capital savings of over $4 million, reduced the construction duration of the expansion by over 6 months, and decreased the COS per gallon of wastewater treated.

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