WWEMA-member company Hydro International in December launched an online tool to help water and wastewater treatment plant operators assess the full operating cost impact of grit deposition and abrasion on their plant efficiency. The Cost of Grit Calculator draws on real-world data collected from operating plants to predict the likely savings to treatment plant efficiency that can be gained for any operator installing a high-performance grit removal system.
The simple-to-use calculator requires input of a small number of values to generate, within minutes, an estimate of the annual and lifecycle savings that could be made by removing more grit at the headworks. Having set the operating plant capacity and the preferred equipment lifetime cost into the system, users can input estimated or known costs of their downstream plant maintenance activities. These include the periodic cleanout of grit basins, aeration basins, or anaerobic digester tanks, for example, as well as replacement and refurbishment costs for equipment such as pumps, centrifuges or membranes.Where operators are unable to provide values, averages are suggested based on actual costs from operating plants in the USA.