Full Description

A number of models of the cost of microfiltration treatment exist, but these modelsgenerally do not address, or are not validated for, larger facilities (facilities with a designflow of 5 mgd or greater). In the past, microfiltration was not cost-competitive for largerfacilities, but it is now being adopted at plants with design flows as large as 20 mgd.Accordingly, there is a need to extend these cost models to include larger facilities. Datafor the larger facilities is still somewhat sparse, as only a few have yet been constructed.Nevertheless, the information that is available on these facilities can provide a valuableguide as to the economies of scale that may be available to larger treatment plants. In thisstudy a survey of costs at large microfiltration plants was conducted. Data was obtainedfor 10 facilities, including three facilities with design flows greater than 9 mgd. The resultsindicate that large systems can achieve economies of scale, despite the modular nature ofmost microfiltration units. The three largest facilities (design flows of 9 to 20 mgd) havecosts of less than 50 cents/thousand gallons. The cost estimates for facilities with flows ofless than 5 mgd closely match a previous survey of small microfiltration plants. Inaddition, this study provides a basis for extending the predictions of existing cost modelsup to design flows of 20 mgd. Results indicate that costs vary among systems of the samecapacity with 95% of all systems being within roughly a factor of two of the mean cost. Includes 9 references, figure.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/01/2009 Number of Pages: 5File Size: 1 file , 950 KB