NYSERDA Press Releases

Technology To Be Marketed For Statewide Use
NYSERDA Helps Tonawanda Improve Wastewater Treatment With New Filter Design

Albany, NY – The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) recently co-funded a $537,932 project with the Town of Tonawanda that has improved the efficiency of the Town's wastewater treatment plant and will save the Town nearly $50,000 in annual energy and operating expenses.

In an attempt to increase water filtration capacity and reduce energy use, NYSERDA and the Town of Tonawanda teamed up to demonstrate an innovative and simplified filtration system, which employs a course monomedia substrate in lieu of the conventional mixed filter media. Compared to the conventional system, the new filtration unit is helping the plant handle twice the capacity of wastewater at high flow times.

"By improving the filtering process for wastewater treatment, the Town of Tonawanda is cutting operational costs and saving taxpayers money," said NYSERDA President William M. Flynn. "As NYSERDA continues to use innovative technologies to solve New York's energy needs, there are many other wastewater treatment plants across the State that can benefit from this advancement in filtration."

In most wastewater treatment systems, an energy-intensive filtration process is employed. With the advanced filter design, the Town of Tonawanda Wastewater Treatment Plant has accelerated run times by seven-fold, allowing for more precise filtering and less electricity use, as well as reducing the water required per backwash cycle and doubling the capacity of the filter. This innovative process also produces a higher quality effluent which reduces the impacts on the environment.

"Prior to the installation of the monomedia, our sand filters were in fact a bottleneck during periods of high flow. With the additional filtering capacity provided by this design, our facility is capable of peak performance under any and all conditions," said John Camilleri, director of water resources for the Town of Tonawanda.

Conventionally designed tertiary filters use support gravel and layers of fine media such as sand and anthracite, which limits the volume of water that passes through. Periodically, the filter undergoes backwash cycles to clean the media of accumulated solids. In addition, during high flows, some water bypasses the filter, forcing the process to be repeated. With the new monomedia filter design that uses a single layer of larger sand particles and a simpler gravel configuration, more water is allowed through the filter, providing for reduced backwash cycles and quicker run times, thus decreasing electricity use.

"This saves the Town of Tonawanda a good deal of money and greatly increases the efficiency in wastewater treatment," said State Senator Mary Lou Rath (R-C, Amherst). "The Town and NYSERDA are to be commended for the forward-thinking partnership that has led to the utilization of this breakthrough technology that will benefit local taxpayers. NYSERDA has worked with other municipalities in my district in the past and produced successful results. I look forward to continuing to work with NYSERDA on future projects."

Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, D-Tonawanda, said, "This is an example of intergovernmental cooperation at its best. It's saving money for the taxpayers of the Town of Tonawanda now and demonstrating the benefits of an improved filtration system for other municipalities that will want to adopt it in the future."

As a result of the new filter design, the Town of Tonawanda has seen major improvements in their wastewater treatment. For instance, backwash frequency was decreased from twice per day to once every two days, saving 2.43 million gallons of chlorinated water per day. This in turn saves 144,000 pounds of chlorine per year and reduces annual electricity use by 477,000 kWh (enough to power roughly 80 homes a year).

"The Town of Tonawanda is now reaping the benefits of the investment that they and NYSERDA have made in this pioneering technology," said Bryan Smith, Senior Vice President of R&D Engineering in Buffalo and lead design engineer for the this project, who rates it as a huge success and sees monomedia filtration as revolutionizing tertiary wastewater treatment in New York State. "The demonstrated success of this project will now lead wastewater facilities across New York to evaluate monomedia filtration as an option to improve the treatment capacity of their plants, and the energy and cost efficiency of their operations."

In addition to the nearly $120,000 of funding for the demonstration of the new filter design, NYSERDA is providing $15,000 from its Smart Equipment Choices Program for new variable speed drives on the Town's water pumps. The new drives will allow the pumps to operate more efficiently and save additional energy for the plant.

With the help of R&D Engineering, NYSERDA also plans to market the new filter design to other municipalities across the State. More than 125 municipalities have the means to adopt this technology and NYSERDA hopes to replicate Tonawanda's success with each of them.

NYSERDA, a public benefit corporation, supports research to develop and demonstrate technologies that help New York businesses, municipalities and residents save energy and reduce emissions. NYSERDA also helps New York State businesses develop energy and environmental products, commercializing the type of high-value-added products that give New York State businesses a real chance to compete in the expanding global marketplace. In addition, NYSERDA helps New York State businesses, residents, and municipalities identify and implement cost-effective energy efficiency measures that lower operating costs and reduce environmental emissions.

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