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Design of control strategies for nutrient removal in a biological wastewater treatment process

  • Environmental and Energy Management
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Abstract

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are highly non-linear operations concerned with huge disturbances in flow rate and concentration of pollutants with uncertainties in the composition of influent wastewater. In this work, the activated sludge process model with seven reactor configuration in the ASM3bioP framework is used to achieve simultaneous removal of nitrogen and phosphorus. A total of 8 control approaches are designed and implemented in the advanced simulation framework for assessment of the performance. The performance of the WWTP (effluent quality index and global plant performance) and the operational costs are also evaluated to compare the control approaches. Additionally, this paper reports a comparison among proportional integral (PI) control, fuzzy logic control, and model-based predictive control (MPC) configurations framework. The simulation outcomes indicated that all three control approaches were able to enhance the performance of WWTP when compared with open loop operation.

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Abbreviations

AE:

Aeration energy rate (kWh/day)

ASM1:

Activated sludge model No. 1

ASM2:

Activated sludge model No. 2

ASM2d:

Activated sludge model No .2d

ASM3:

Activated sludge model No. 3

BWTP:

Biological waste water treatment plants

BOD5 :

Biological oxygen demand

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

DO:

Dissolved oxygen

EQI:

Effluent quality index

IQI:

Influent quality index

K :

Proportional gain

K La:

Oxygen transfer coefficient

N:

Nitrogen

NO:

Nitrate

P:

Phosphorus

PE:

Pumping energy consumption (kWh/day)

HUk :

Pollutant load corresponding to component

Q o :

Influent flow rate (m3/day)

Q intr :

Internal recycle flow rate (m3/day)

Q r :

Return sludge flow rate (m3/day)

Q w :

Waste sludge flow rate (m3/day)

S A :

Fermentation products (g COD/m3)

S F :

Readily biodegradable organic substrate

S HCO :

Alkalinity of the waste water (HCO3/m3)

S I :

Inert soluble organic material (g COD/m3)

S NH :

Ammonium and ammonia nitrogen (g N/m3)

S NO :

Nitrate and nitrite nitrogen (g N/m3)

S N2 :

Dinitrogen (g N/m3)

S PO4 :

Inorganic soluble phosphate (g P/m3)

S S :

Readily biodegradable organic substrate (g COD/m3)

t o :

Start time

t f :

End time

T BOD :

Total BOD concentration

T COD :

Total COD concentration

T NO :

Nitrate concentration

T Ntot :

Total N concentration

T Ptot :

Total phosphorous concentration

T TKN :

Total organic N concentration.

T TSS :

Total suspended solids concentration

WWTP:

Waste water treatment plant

X A :

Nitrifying organisms (g COD/m3)

X H :

Heterotrophic organisms (g COD/m3)

X I :

Inert particulate organic material (g COD/m3)

X S :

Slowly biodegradable substrates (g COD/m3)

X PAO :

Phosphate accumulating organisms (g COD/m3)

X PHA :

Cell internal storage product of PAOs (g COD/m3)

X PP :

Polyphosphate (g P/m3)

X STO :

Cell inner storage product of heterotopy

X TSS :

Suspended solids (g SS/m3)

α j :

Cost factor for components j

j :

EQ, AE, PE, and SP

β k :

Weighting factor for components K

T k :

TBOD,TCOD,TTKN,TNO3,TPtot,TTSS

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Kimberly Solon, Environmental Science and Modeling Division, Ghent University, Belgium, is acknowledged for sending the ASM3bioP Matlab/Simulink codes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, Telangana, 506 004, India

    Abdul Gaffar Shiek, VS Raghu Kumar Machavolu, Murali Mohan Seepana & Seshagiri Rao Ambati

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  1. Abdul Gaffar Shiek
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  2. VS Raghu Kumar Machavolu
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  3. Murali Mohan Seepana
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Correspondence to Seshagiri Rao Ambati.

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Shiek, A.G., Machavolu, V.R.K., Seepana, M.M. et al. Design of control strategies for nutrient removal in a biological wastewater treatment process. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 12092–12106 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09347-2

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