Comparative evaluation of cost for preliminary and tertiary municipal wastewater treatment plants in Istanbul

As the global economy continues to grow, the need for an economic evaluation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is increasing. Determination of cost functions (CFs) helps to assess the costs of WWTP and to be able to reach to the satisfactory financial levels of construction and operation practices in the early phases of a project. In this study, unit capital and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs were calculated by analyzing the real capital and operation and maintenance expenditures of 16 full-scale WWTPs in Istanbul. Besides, the impacts of treatment level and capacity on costs were investigated. The unit total capital cost was found as 0.013 ± 0.004 €/m³ and 0.054 ± 0.009 €/m³ for preliminary and tertiary treatment, respectively, whereas the unit total O&M cost were 0.011 ± 0.007 €/m³ and 0.077 ± 0.021 €/m³ for preliminary and tertiary treatment, respectively. Capital (investment) costs covered 58% of the total cost in preliminary WWTPs, whereas; O&M costs had the highest share (58%) in tertiary WWTPs. The results of this study confirmed that the level of treatment considerably affected the costs of WWTPs. Moreover, the CFs were separately derived for tertiary treatment including A²O with and without digester. The CFs obtained in this study are of utmost importance to be used in the economic evaluation of the planned WWTPs and in the management of existing ones.