Benchmarking of control strategies for ATAD technology: a first approach to the automatic control of sludge treatment systems

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Zambrano ◽  
M. Gil-Martinez ◽  
M. Garcia-Sanz ◽  
I. Irizar

Autothermal Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion (ATAD technology) is a promising alternative to conventional digestion systems. Aeration is a key factor in the performance of these kinds of reactors, in relation to effluent quality and operating costs. At present, the realisation of automatic control in ATADs is in its infancy. Additionally, the lack of robust sensors also makes the control of these processes difficult: only redox potential and temperature sensors are reliable for operation in full-scale plants. Based as it is on the existing simulation protocols for benchmarking of control strategies for wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), this paper presents the definition and implementation of a similar protocol but specifically adapted to the needs of ATAD technology. The implemented simulation protocol has been used to validate two different control strategies for aeration (ST1 and ST2). In comparison to an open-loop operation for the ATAD, simulation results showed that the ST1 strategy was able to save aeration costs of around 2–4%. Unlike ST1, ST2 achieved maximum sludge stabilisation but at the expense of higher aeration costs.

Author(s):  
S. Saravana Kumar ◽  
K. Latha

Abstract The application of control strategies in wastewater treatment plants has increased to improve its performance of treating the influent. Fuzzy Logic controller plays a vital role in this work and the simulation work is being carried out in Benchmark simulation model no.1 (BSM1) framework. The attempted work proposes two control schemes with the objectives of improving the effluent quality and minimizing the number of measurements taken from the plant. The design of fuzzy control schemes is based on 5 inputs and 6 outputs in order to accomplish the objectives. Experimental results show improvement in the effluent quality and increase in the efficacy of the control system. The proposed design is implemented using MATLAB with the adaptation of 2014a.


2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 117-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.A. Vanrolleghem ◽  
S. Gillot

The objective of this paper was to investigate the usefulness of new multi-criteria measures to evaluate a control strategy through the Benchmark protocol. Using a case study in which respirometry-based control strategies are evaluated, the proposed measures were calculated. An economic index including weighted investment and operating costs (termed Total Cost Index – TCI) appears more powerful than a grey-scale presentation approach. Using the latter approach, it is hard to reflect the relative importance of the criteria investigated, which makes practical decisions rather difficult. In addition, a Robustness Index (RI) is proposed that allows us to evaluate the transferability of control strategies to situations different from the ones defined in the benchmark protocol. Finally, the case study shows that it may be advisable to replace the currently used open loop benchmark reference by a plant in which dissolved oxygen is controlled in all aerated reactors. This quite simple strategy also turned out to be the best one among all evaluated strategies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Benedetti ◽  
Damien J. Batstone ◽  
Bernard De Baets ◽  
Ingmar Nopens ◽  
Peter A. Vanrolleghem

The control of wastewater treatment plants can help to achieve good effluent quality, in a complex, highly non-linear environment. A key but time-demanding component of such modelling studies is uncertainty analysis (UA). The general aims of this paper are (a) to evaluate methods for reduction of the time necessary to conduct an UA, and (b) to evaluate the sensitivity of parameters and model subsystems. Two UA studies on the Benchmark Simulation Model no. 2 (BSM2) are used to illustrate how the above mentioned aims can be achieved: (1) robustness of performance evaluations against changing operation and design conditions; and (2) uncertainty of performance evaluations for a given plant layout and operation. The main conclusions are: (1) solver settings have a large impact on simulation speed and require proper attention; (2) to reach convergence in Monte Carlo simulations with Latin Hypercube Sampling, the number of simulations should be at least 50 times the number of sampled parameters, which is more than what is reported in similar studies; and (3) the number of uncertain parameters that needs to be considered to make a proper uncertainty assessment of a model can be reduced significantly by omitting parameters that have little influence.


1991 ◽  
Vol 23 (7-9) ◽  
pp. 1457-1466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuhiro Tanaka ◽  
Minoru Tada ◽  
Mitsuo Ito ◽  
Noritugu Shimizu

Biofilm processes are, in general, suitable for small-scale wastewater treatment plants. However, final effluent qualities of biofilm processes are not as good as those of activated sludge processes due to fine particles remaining in the effluents. To improve the effluent qualities of the Rotating Biological Contactors (RBC) process, the behavior of fine particles through the process and the removal of fine particles with solids-liquid separation methods, rapid filtration and coagulation-filtration, were investigated using the particle fraction method. The results are as follows:–An increase of the hydraulic retention time (HRT) in the RBC reactor reduced the amount of fine particles and increased the amount of coarse suspended solids of 44 µm or more in diameter, which are easily removed by clarification. Thus, the final effluent qualities were improved by the increase of HRT.–Suspended solids in effluent from the RBC process at the standard loading are so fine that improvement of the quality is not expected by only lowering the overflow rate of a final clarifier. In contrast, rapid filtration or a coagulation-filtration process is effective. The supended solid concentration and transparency of the effluent from the final clarifier was improved by a factor of two to four, and then BOD of the final effluent was removed by 40-85%.


1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 65-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.-H. Schierup ◽  
H. Brix

Since 1983 approximately 150 full-scale emergent hydrophyte based wastewater treatment plants (reed beds) have been constructed in Denmark to serve small wastewater producers. The development of purification performance for 21 plants representing different soil types, vegetation, and hydraulic loading rates has been recorded. Cleaning efficiencies were typically in the range of 60-80% reduction for BOD, 25-50% reduction for total nitrogen, and 20-40% reduction for total phosphorus. The mean effluent BOD, total nitrogen and total phosphorus concentrations of the reed beds were 19 ± 10, 22 ± 9 and 6.7 ± 3.2 mg/l (mean ± SD), respectively. Thus, the general Danish effluent standards of 8 mg/l for N and 1.5 mg/l for P for sewage plants greater than 5,000 PE cannot be met by the present realised design of EHTS. The main problem observed in most systems is a poor development of horizontal hydraulic conductivity in the soil which results in surface run-off. Since the political demands for effluent quality will be more strict in the future, it is important to improve the performance of small decentral sewage treatment plants. On the basis of experiences from different types of macrophyte based and conventional low-technology wastewater treatment systems, a multi-stage system is suggested, consisting of sedimentation and sand filtration facilities followed by basins planted with emergent and submergent species of macrophytes and algal ponds.


1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-87
Author(s):  
L. Van Vooren ◽  
P. Willems ◽  
J. P. Ottoy ◽  
G. C. Vansteenkiste ◽  
W. Verstraete

The use of an automatic on-line titration unit for monitoring the effluent quality of wastewater plants is presented. Buffer capacity curves of different effluent types were studied and validation results are presented for both domestic and industrial full-scale wastewater treatment plants. Ammonium and ortho-phosphate monitoring of the effluent were established by using a simple titration device, connected to a data-interpretation unit. The use of this sensor as the activator of an effluent quality proportional sampler is discussed.


1993 ◽  
Vol 28 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 257-261
Author(s):  
M. Truett Garrett ◽  
Zaki Ahmad ◽  
Shelly Young

The recent requirements by U.S.E.P.A. for dechlorination and biomonitoring have increased the importance of automatic control of effluent chlorination in wastewater treatment plants. Difficulties with the Ziegler-Nichols controller tuning procedure were reported at the Kyoto Workshop, 1990. Problems are caused by the noise of incomplete mixing, a long time constant, and the disturbances of changing flow and chlorine demand. The Astrom-Hagglund relay feedback procedure provides acceptable control while data is logged to determine the controller constants. Experiences in using the procedure in existing facilities (not redesigning the mixing point) and the quality of control are presented.


1993 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
Jes la Cour Jansen ◽  
Bodil Mose Pedersen ◽  
Erik Moldt

Influent and effluent data from about 120 small wastewater treatment plants (100 - 2000 PE) have been collected and processed. Seven different types of plants are represented. The effluent quality and the treatment efficiency have been evaluated. The most common type of plant is mechanical/biological treatment plants. Some of them are nitrifying and some are also extended for chemical precipitation of phosphorus. Constructed wetlands and biological sandfilters are also represented among the small wastewater treatment plants.


2000 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 281-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Nowak

Operating costs of Austrian municipal treatment plants are evaluated for 1989/90 and for 1997, respectively. The results indicate that presently the expenses which can be directly connected to wastewater purification, i.e. energy and chemicals for P removal, comprise only about 20% of the total operating costs. Today, in Austria like in other EU countries, the predominating factor is “labour costs”, even at nutrient removal plants. A general scheme for estimating operating costs is presented that can be applied to WWTPs in other parts of the world. In this scheme the important factors relevant to the operating costs are integrated.


Author(s):  
Andreas Rauh ◽  
Luise Senkel ◽  
Harald Aschemann ◽  
Vasily V. Saurin ◽  
Georgy V. Kostin

Abstract In this paper, control-oriented modeling approaches are presented for distributed parameter systems. These systems, which are in the focus of this contribution, are assumed to be described by suitable partial differential equations. They arise naturally during the modeling of dynamic heat transfer processes. The presented approaches aim at developing finite-dimensional system descriptions for the design of various open-loop, closed-loop, and optimal control strategies as well as state, disturbance, and parameter estimation techniques. Here, the modeling is based on the method of integrodifferential relations, which can be employed to determine accurate, finite-dimensional sets of state equations by using projection techniques. These lead to a finite element representation of the distributed parameter system. Where applicable, these finite element models are combined with finite volume representations to describe storage variables that are—with good accuracy—homogeneous over sufficiently large space domains. The advantage of this combination is keeping the computational complexity as low as possible. Under these prerequisites, real-time applicable control algorithms are derived and validated via simulation and experiment for a laboratory-scale heat transfer system at the Chair of Mechatronics at the University of Rostock. This benchmark system consists of a metallic rod that is equipped with a finite number of Peltier elements which are used either as distributed control inputs, allowing active cooling and heating, or as spatially distributed disturbance inputs.


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