Operating costs and energy demand of wastewater treatment plants in Austria: benchmarking results of the last 10 years.

This work presents operating costs and energy consumption of Austrian municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) (≥10,000 PE-design capacity) that have been classified into different size groups. Different processes as well as cost elements are investigated and processes with high relevance regarding operating costs and energy consumption are identified. Furthermore, the work shows the cost-relevance of six investigated cost elements. The analysis demonstrates the size-dependency of operating costs and energy consumption. For the examination of the energy consumption the investigated WWTPs were further classified into WWTPs with aerobic sludge stabilisation and WWTPs with mesophilic sludge digestion. The work proves that energy consumption depends mainly on the type of sludge stabilisation. The results of the investigation can help to determine reduction potential in operating costs and energy consumption of WWTPs and form a basis for more detailed analysis which helps to identify cost and energy saving potential.