How Municipal Wastewater
Treatment Plants Work
The key design goal of wastewater treatment
plants (WWTPs) is to process incoming
wastewater streams, comprised of over 99%
water, to a quality that can be safely returned
to the environment using often complex
physical, biological and chemical methods.
To analyze a WWTP for power generation
potential however, only a basic understanding
of the plant’s design is necessary.
WWTPs, also commonly abbreviated
POTWs (publicly owned treatment works),
are typically designed based on the size of
the community that it is intended to serve.
The standard in the United States is that
10,000 people produce 1 million gallons per
day (MGD) of wastewater. Plants can be
compared in size by their design flow rate
in MGD and are designed to accommodate
peak flows that can be 2-4 times larger than
average daily flows