How to use wastewater power to produce electricity

Industry: Energy

Date: 2018

Water

Solutions of the macro-sustainability challenges

Improving the efficiency of water distribution and usage

Further targets:

What´s the solution?

The aim of the project was to utilise the potential energy of the treated wastewater between the sewage water reservoir and the outflow pit by installing a micro scale hydro turbine between them. The treated wastewater used to flow into the Danube while its potential energy was unused. The machine itself is really simple, consisting of a vacuum start-up system, a nonadjustable guide vane row, a simple four propelled impeller and an induction motor as a generator.

Business connection

With the 7 m height difference between the reservoir and the outflow pit and with the average outflow of approximately 900 m3/h roughly 10 kW of electricity can be generated. This equals to 80000 kWh yearly, which is around the annual consumption of 2-3 households. Even though compared to the Danube Refinery’s electricity demand which lies at 700000 MWh on average it is not much, but this production would come from a renewable source and as such it is CO2 free.

The investment was financed by the Green Fund, the MOL Group financial support fund for projects with environmental benefits.

Results

Green Fund is part of the MOL Group’s 2020 SD Action Plan, which shows that sustainable development plays an important role in our future.

The goal is to increase the number of green-focused solutions with significant environmental benefits. The Green Fund has an annual budget of 1 million USD, distributed among the winners of an internal competition. Since 2016, more than 20 projects have been implemented.

Even though the geographical location of the refinery was a crucial factor of the realization of this project, the approach that led to its success can be applied MOL Group wide.