Techno-economic evaluation of a chromic wastewater treatment plant proposal

Wastewater treatment plants are systems that, if properly operated, can help the health of industry and the environment. In the present work, the techno-economic evaluation of a proposed chromic wastewater treatment plant with a processing capacity of 9 t of wastewater per batch was carried out, in order to determine its main profitability parameters, using SuperPro Designer® simulator v. 10. Around 6,959.90 L/batch of treated water are generated, while a total capital investment of USD $ 3,549 million and a direct fixed capital of USD $ 3,222 million are required. The item that most influences the annual operating costs is the facility-dependent costs (USD $ 345,000/year) while the reagent that most influences the material consumption annual costs is ferric chloride (USD $ 56,805/year). It was obtained a unit processing cost of USD $ 0.22/kg, an annual net profit of USD $ 486,000 and a return on investment of 22.16%. The values ​​obtained for the indicators Net Present Value (USD $ 3,361,000), Internal Rate of Return (29.61%) and Payback Time (4.51 years) allow establishing that the proposal is profitable under the current economic conditions of Cuba.