The hospitality industry has made great strides in managing water consumption and finding new ways to reduce operating costs and shrink its members’ environmental footprints. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that approximately 15% of the total water use in commercial and institutional facilities in the U.S. takes place in hotels and other lodging businesses. As the industry continues to advance the agenda of sustainability with a greater focus on water and wastewater stewardship, it is producing viable solutions to help manage wastewater goals and challenges.
The solution
To help meet the unique needs of hotels and resorts, packaged wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are becoming viable choices for many hospitality corporations and remote resort communities. This increased demand for packaged WWTPs, combined with innovative MBR technologies and quick turnaround times in a ready-to-operate system such as Ovivo’s microBLOX system, have become important to hotels and resorts in remote and rural areas with water scarcity and unique flow challenges.
One of the primary advantages of the Ovivo microBLOX packaged plant system in a hotel and resort environment is its ability to handle varying levels of flow and loads into the system. As a single-process MBR plant, the system is able to process anything from kitchen grease to laundry chemicals, with an ability to handle an increased amount of biomass in a small, enclosed area onsite at the property. The small footprint, standard design and expandability of the microBLOX system also allows for ease of operation and a lower overall operating cost. Additionally, the plant can handle very little flow to flows of nearly 100,000 gpd, which can be important given the gap of use between the high and low tourist seasons.
The other advantage of the Ovivo microBLOX system is its high quality of discharge, which can be important when a remote resort community is considering reuse or potable options. The discharge can be reused for watering the landscape, golf courses or even cooling towers on the property. Reverse osmosis can be added to create the highest-quality effluent.
The cases
The following case studies are a small representation of packaged plant solutions in the hospitality sector.
• An historic lodge located at the gates of Yosemite National Park in California was undergoing improvements and realized that future discharges would exceed the existing treatment capacity or permitted discharge limits. It was also found that the lodge’s WWTP was in decay, with significant operating inefficiencies. The fully integrated Ovivo microBLOX plant was determined to be the right solution given the customer’s preferences, and it is being constructed adjacent to the existing wastewater facility.
• Tucked into a private canyon in the Upper Napa Valley in California on a 157-acre site marked by ancient oaks, majestic hills, a rock-hewn stream and a private lake, a 48-room luxury resort captures the rich culture of food, wine and nature inherent to the region. With its existing FAST system failing, the owners considered MBBR and MBR. The Ovivo microBLOX MBR System was chosen for its superior quality, quick delivery and ease of installation. The four-stage process is completely contained within the single structure, which includes head works through to and including disinfection.
• Wastewater from a temporary destination location can be a challenge to effectively treat, due to transit visitors who can swell the resort population from a few to a few thousand. The existing SBR at a resort in the Caribbean could not be managed so that it produced the effluent quality required for the resort. The resort’s corporation looked for another solution and, upon evaluation of different technologies and suppliers, decided on the Ovivo microBLOX system. One of the points in Ovivo’s favor was its excellent customer support and the smart systems that are included with every microBLOX.