West Lafayette, IN Wastewater Treatment Plant

The West Lafayette treatment plant treats an average of 10 MGD utilizing primary, activated sludge and anaerobic digestion.  The facility also has a wet-weather treatment process that can treat 52 MGD of combined wastewater in a storm event.  The plant receives FOG, food waste, and other exotic wastes into its anaerobic digester to produce additional methane gas.  The produced methane gas is used to power two microturbines that produce electricity- offsetting approximately 20% of the plants electrical needs.

WSI preformed a process energy audit of the facility in 2010.  The audit resulted in over $150,000 per year in electrical energy savings – without any capital expense.  The audit also significantly reduced biosolids production.  The audit recommended other process or improvements that could result in an additional $274,000 per year.  The staff is currently implementing some of these recommendations.