You are on page 1of 12

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

1 of 12

Content

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

Discussion on this article (0)

Attachments ( 2 files ):
1 pdf file
1 image file
This article and the attached presentation were
presented by Professor Gustaf Olsson as a keynote at the IWA
Conference on Design, Operation and Economics of Large
Wastewater Treatment Plants, held in Prague in September 2015.
Content Table
Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants
ICA Development
Control of unit process operations
Process interactions
Integrated control
Resource recovery
Decentralized systems
Conclusions
References
ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

2 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

Instrumentation, control and automation (ICA) of wastewater treatment


systems and sewer networks have attracted much attention since the
early 1970s. The developments during the last four decades in on-line
instrumentation, computer technology, process understanding and
subsequent model development, and control methods have been
powerful driving forces for advanced control making ICA ever more
profitable. Today computational power is almost for free. The
instrumentation development shows a progress towards smarter
sensors with multiple heads, possible to be placed anywhere in the
processes. Actuators such as variable speed drives for pumps and
compressors make control more flexible. Control engineering today can
offer almost any method that the water operator would need.
There are several important demand pull driving forces. Regulatory
requirements and increased design complexity have stimulated further
ICA development. It is expected that the use of ICA for the operation
and management of wastewater systems will increase in the coming
years. Other demand pull driving forces include continued population
growth and urbanisation leading to increased wastewater load,
continued increase in the complexity in the function and capability of
wastewater treatment (now more often called resource recovery)
plants, ever more stringent regulations, and ever-stronger economic
drivers. The on-going climate change and the associated extreme
weather conditions further add to the challenges.

In most cases control systems consist of quite conventional control


loops oriented at unit process operations. The aim is to compensate for
disturbances, satisfy the effluent quality and save energy and chemical
consumption. These applications are relatively mature. Some examples
of state-of-the-art unit-process control include:
Dissolved oxygen (DO) control with a constant or a variable
set-point as part of the aerator unit process operation. Variation in
the DO set-point is typically guided by ammonia sensors indicating
the nitrogen removal performance;
Aeration phase-length control in alternating plants based on

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

3 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

nutrient sensors;
Nitrate recirculation control in pre-denitrification plants based
on DO and nitrate measurements in the aerobic and anoxic zones,
respectively;
Sludge retention time control based on measurements of effluent
ammonia concentration and the estimated nitrification capacity;
Return sludge control based on sludge blanket measurements in
the settler;
The control of the feed rate to anaerobic processes aimed at
stabilizing the process and maximizing the biogas production;
Chemical precipitation control based on local measurements of
phosphate concentration.
It has been demonstrated that ICA may increase the capacity of
biological nutrient removal plants by 10-30%. With further
understanding and exploitation of the relationship between operational
parameters and the microbial population dynamics and biochemical
reactions and increased maturity of advanced on-line sensors, the
improvements offered by ICA will likely reach even higher levels within
the next 10-20 years. Comprehensive reviews of these control systems
developments can be found in Olsson-Newell (1999), Olsson et al.
(2005, 2014), mand et al., (2013) and Olsson (2008, 2012).

There is an increasing interest in the interaction between various unit


processes that is a result both of the main stream and of recirculation
flows. Over the years the complexity of wastewater treatment systems
has increased substantially. The first ICA applications were
implemented in COD removal plants. The designs gradually included
COD combined with phosphorus removal using chemical precipitation
and further to biological nutrient removal plants. Today there is a lot of
focus on resource (water, energy and nutrients) recovery.
Consequently, the system complexity has increased substantially, with
strong interactionsbetween different processes units, representing
both challenges and opportunities for ICA, illustrated by a few
examples:

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

4 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

In a pre-denitrification plant a large flow of oxygen rich nitrate is


recirculated to the anoxic zone. The DO control has to satisfy the
need of oxygen for the nitrification towards the outlet of the
aeration basin and still prevent too much oxygen to enter the
anoxic zone (Olsson-Newell, 1999).
Interaction between different parts of the treatment plant can
cause unintentional disturbances. Figure 1 illustrates how a sudden
release of nitrogen-rich sludge supernatant from an anaerobic
digester back to the influent of the wastewater treatment plant
will cause an unnecessary overload of the plant if it happens during
the high load periods of the day. The oxygen uptake rate increases
significantly as the supernatant is recycled. The controlled release
of such streams during low-load periods will beneficially attenuate
the disturbance.

The interactions between different parts of the treatment plant


can also be positively exploited through integrated control or
plant-wide control, to derive additional benefits. For example, the
bioenergy recovery from waste activated sludge can be enhanced
by controlling the sludge age in the secondary treatment to a level
just allowing full nitrification. This is because a relatively young
sludge is more biodegradable giving a higher yield for bioenergy
recovery. This aim can be achieved through the already-established
sludge retention time control (Olsson et al., 2005).

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

5 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

Aeration tank settling (ATS) technology (Nielsen et al., 2000) is a good


example of integrated control. The hydraulic capacity of a treatment
plant is typically limited by its secondary settler. The ATS strategy is to
switch off aeration in the last part of the aerobic reactor a few hours
prior to the arrival of storm water. The activated sludge settles in the
reactor, reducing the solids loading to the settler and the amount of
solids to be buffered in the settler. The operating experiences of ATS
have been very favourable (Sharma et al., 2013).
Integrated control is expected to be a key focus of control design in the
coming years. Such an approach is expected to not only deliver benefits
in terms of treatment efficiency and costs, but also enhance the ability
of a plant in coping with increased loading; thus deferring plant
upgrading. Control systems have to be designed to consider plant wide
aspects, sometimes including sewer operations and their interaction
with the wastewater treatment plant. The sequential relationship
between the sewer, the wastewater treatment plant and the receiving
water is obvious and the need for control of flow in the sewers for the
benefits of wastewater treatment plants and also the receiving water
was recognized early (Olsson, 2012).
The central issue to be resolved in plant-wide control is the translation
of implicit plantwide operating objectives to sets of feedbackcontrolled variables of individual control loops. The supervisory control,
called STAR (Superior Tuning and Reporting), was presented by
Lynggaard-Jensen & Nielsen (1993) and later commercialized by Krger
AS, Denmark. The system automatically calculates the setpoints for the
individual control loops of the system. Thomsen-nnert (2009) reported
experiences during 15 years with about 50 wastewater systems.
A successful integrated control requires both accurate dynamic models
of the sewer system and the treatment plant as well as reliable sensors.
Progress in integrated modelling and control has been reported, among
others, by Nielsen et al. (1996), Pfister et al. (1998), Rauch-Harremoes
(1999) and Schtze et al. (1999). The implementations were
demonstrated by simulations of real systems, but the results
demonstrated the potential of integrated control. During the last
decade there has been a lot of research on models and control concepts

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

6 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

(e.g. Butler-Schtze, 2005; Vanrolleghem et. al., 2005; Benedetti et


al., 2008), case studies (e.g. Erbe et al., 2002 and Seggelke et al.,
2005) and optimization methods (e.g. Brdys et al., 2008; Muschalla,
2008 and Fu et al., 2008). An overview of these developments can be
found in Schtze et al. (2004), Rauch et al. (2005). Olsson-Jeppsson
(2006) emphasised the role of plant wide control with the inflow
considered. The IWA Benchmark Task Group recently presented the
result of more than ten years of model development and integration
(Gernaey et al., 2014).
Integrated control is now being achieved in real life (e.g. Eindhoven,
The Netherlands: Weijers et al. 2012; Copenhagen, Denmark: Grum et
al., 2011; Wilhelmshaven, Germany: Seggelke et al., 2013), although
the number of successful implementations is still limited. A key barrier
for the wider implementation is the fragmented urban water
management. Integrated control often means a compromise. While
sewer control will minimize sewer overflow spills it will cause hydraulic
stress to the treatment plant. On the other hand, while sewers can be
used to equalize hydraulic load to the treatment plant, such an
operation does not necessarily improve the sewer performance. In both
cases, the benefit is only apparent when the entire wastewater system
is seen as one system with a unified goal. This is unfortunately still
uncommon. Another barrier for implementation is the absence of
standard solutions as each case is different and requires tailored
approaches.

The paradigm shift from wastewater treatment to resource recovery is


also leading to the development of novel processes. For example, the
A/B process has the aim to reduce aerobic oxidation of organic carbon
and enhance bioenergy recovery. The energy-rich activated sludge is
passed on to the anaerobic digester for the production of methane as
renewable energy. Thus the aeration requirement is reduced and more
organic carbon is converted to biogas. Supported by this technology,
two municipal WWTPs in Austria are not only achieving energy
self-sufficiency, but also feeding the surplus electrical energy from the

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

7 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

plant to the power grid (Nowak et al., 2011). However, the organic
carbon used for energy production would no longer be available for
achieving a high-level of nitrogen removal. The development of the
Anammox process has the potential to provide a solution to the
problem associated with the A/B process.
The novel process designs pose challenging control problems. First of
all, the A-stage should be operated such that a maximum amount of
COD is absorbed/adsorbed/bioassimilated into the A-sludge, thus
making more carbon available for bio-energy recovery. Even more
challenging is the provision of suitable conditions in the AOB/Anammox
reactor(s) such that AOB (ammonia-oxidizing bacteria) and Anammox
bacteria develop in partnership while nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB)
are eliminated. While a number of strategies are available for the
elimination of NOB in conventional systems (Yuan et al., 2008), the
stable elimination of NOB in a main-stream Anammox system is an
unsolved problem, and ICA may play an important role in achieving this
goal.
A further challenge that future ICA systems have to address is the
mitigation of N2O emissions from biological nitrogen removal plants. It
is known that operational conditions such as DO, nitrite and inorganic
carbon concentrations, pH level and biomass specific nitrogen loading
rate play critical roles (Law et al., 2012). The control of these
parameters at levels that would minimise N2O emissions yet allowing
satisfactory nitrogen removal is yet to be developed and demonstrated.

There is an increasing interest in decentralised wastewater treatment


and reuse systems in urban areas. Small plants are subject to extreme
fluctuations in both their inflow rates and the wastewater
compositions. The flow rates can be intermittent and wastewater
compositions can vary within minutes. Still the plants have to produce
effluent with a quality complying with environmental regulations
reliably. Without professional engineers on site, ICA should and can
play an important role in ensuring stable operation and consistent
performance (Wilderer-Schreff, 2000; Olsson, 2013). A further

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

8 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

particular challenge for ICA in a small, decentralised treatment plant is


that monitoring has to be achieved through relatively simple, low-cost
instruments such as flow, pH, level and pressure meters. Also, early
warning systems are critically important for such systems.

ICA applications are common in urban wastewater systems with


significant benefits reported. The primary applications of ICA have
focused on the control of various process units in water and wastewater
treatment plants, leading to improved performance, reduced
operational costs and increased capacity of the plants. Future research
will focus on integrated control of urban water systems. Through
properly recognising the connections and interactions between various
units in a plant, and between various sub-systems, ICA will play more
significant roles in optimised use of existing urban water infrastructure,
leading to systemwide optimisation. The use of ICA can allow us to get
more out of existing assets, deferring capital intensive upgrading that
would otherwise be needed.

mand, L., Olsson, G. and Carlsson, B. (2013). Aeration control - a


review. Wat. Sci. Tech. 67(11), 2374-2398.
Benedetti, L., Bixio, D., Claeys, F. and Vanrolleghem, P. A. (2008).
Tools to support a model-based methodology for emission/immission
and benefit/cost/risk analysis of wastewater systems that considers
uncertainty. Environmental Modelling & Software, 23(8), 1082-1091.
Brdys, M.A., Grochowski, M., Gminski, T., Konarczak, K. and Drewa, M.
(2008). Hierarchical predictive control of integrated wastewater
treatment systems. Control Engineering Practice, 16(6), 751-767.
Butler, D. and Schtze, M. (2005). Integrating simulation models with a
view to optimal control of urban wastewater systems. Environmental
Modelling & Software20(4), 415-426.

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

9 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

Erbe, V., Risholt, L.P., Schilling, W. and Londong, J. (2002). Integrated


modelling for analysis and optimisation of wastewater systemsthe
Odenthal case. Urban Water, 4(1), 63-71.
Fu, G., Butler, D., and Khu, S.T. (2008). Multiple objective optimal
control of integrated urban wastewater systems. Environmental
Modelling & Software, 23(2), 225-234.
Gernaey, K., Jeppsson, U., Vanrolleghem, P. and Copp, J.
(2014).Benchmarking of control strategies for wastewater treatment
plants. IWA Publishing, London.
Grum, M., Thornberg, D., Christensen, M.L., Shididi, S.A., and Thirsing,
C. (2011). Full-scale real time control demonstration project in
Copenhagens largest urban drainage catchments. In Proceedings of the
12th International Conference on Urban Drainage, Porto Alegre,
Portugal.
Law, Y., Ye, L., Pan, Y. and Yuan Z. (2012) Nitrous oxide emissions
from wastewater treatment processes. Philosophical Transaction of
Royal Society, B (Biology). 367: 1265-1277.
Lynggaard-Jensen, A. and Nielsen, M.K. (1993). Superior Tuning and
Reporting (STAR) - a new concept for online process control of
wastewater treatment plants. In: 6th IAWPRC (IWA) conference on
instrumentation and control.
Muschalla, D. (2008). Optimization of integrated urban wastewater
systems using multi-objective evolution strategies. Urban Water
Journal, 5(1), 59-67.
Nielsen, M.K., Carstensen, J. and Harremoes, P. (1996). Combined
control of sewer and treatment plant during rainstorm. Water Science
and Technology 34(3), 181-187.
Nielsen, M.K., Bechmann, H. and Henze, M. (2000). Modeling and test
of aeration tank settling (ATS). Water Science and Technology, 41(9),
179184.
Nowak, O., Keil, S. and Fimml, C. (2011). Examples of energy

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

10 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

self-sufficient municipal nutrient removal plants. Water Science and


Technology, 64(1), 1-6.
Olsson, G. (2008). Process Control. Chapter in Biological Wastewater
Treatment Principles, Modelling and Design (M. Henze, M. van
Loosdrecht, G. Ekama, D. Brdjanovic, Editors) UNESCO, IWA Publishing,
London.
Olsson, G. (2012). ICA and me a subjective review. Water Research
46(6), 1585-1624.
Olsson, G. (2013). The potential of control and monitoring. Chapter 12
in Source Separation and Decentralization for Wastewater
Management(T.A. Larsen, K.M. Udert and J. Lienert, editors). IWA
Publishing, London. ISBN 9781843393481
Olsson, G., and Newell, B. (1999). Wastewater Treatment Systems.
Modelling, Diagnosis and Control, IWA Publishing, London, UK.
Olsson, G., and Jeppsson, U. (2006). Plant-wide control: dream,
necessity or reality? Leading-Edge Technology 2005- Wastewater
Treatment, 53(3), 121-129.
Olsson, G., Nielsen, M., Yuan, Z., Lynggaard-Jensen, A. and Steyer, J.P.
(2005). Instrumentation, Control and Automation in Wastewater
Systems, IWA Publishing, London.
Olsson, G., Carlsson, B., Comas, J., Copp, J., Gernaey, K.V., Ingildsen,
P., Jeppsson, U., Kim, C., Rieger, L., Rodrguez-Roda, I., Steyer, J.-P.,
Takcs, I., Vanrolleghem, P.A., Vargas Casillas, A., Yuan, Z. and
mand, L. (2014). Instrumentation, Control and Automation in
wastewater from London 1973 to Narbonne 2013. Water Science and
Technology 69(7), 1373-1385. doi: 10.2166/wst.2014.057
Pfister, A., Stein, A., Schlegel, S. and Teichgrber, B. (1998). An
integrated approach for improving the wastewater discharge and
treatment systems. Water Science and Technology 37(1), 341-346.
Rauch, W. and Harremoes, P. (1999). Genetic algorithms in real time
control applied to minimize transient pollution from urban wastewater

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

11 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

systems. Water Research 33(5), 1265-1277.


Rauch, W., Seggelke, K., Brown, R., and Krebs, P. (2005). Integrated
approaches in urban storm drainage: Where do we stand?
Environmental Management, 35(4), 396-409.
Schtze, M., Butler, D. and Beck, M.B. (1999). Optimisation of control
strategies for the urban wastewater systeman integrated approach.
Water Science and Technology 39(9), 209-216.
Schtze, M., Campisano, A., Colas, H., Schilling, W. and Vanrolleghem,
P. A. (2004). Real time control of urban wastewater systemswhere do
we stand today? Journal of Hydrology, 299(3), 335-348.
Seggelke, K., Rosenwinkel, K.H., Vanrolleghem, P.A., and Krebs, P.
(2005). Integrated operation of sewer system and WWTP by
simulation-based control of the WWTP inflow. Water Science and
Technology, 52(5), 195-203.
Seggelke, K., Lwe, R., Beeneken, T., and Fuchs, L. (2013).
Implementation of an integrated real-time control system of sewer
system and waste water treatment plant in the city of Wilhelmshaven.
Urban Water Journal, 10(5), 330-341.
Sharma, A.K., Guildal, T., Thomsen, H.A.R., Mikkelsen P.S. and
Jacobsen, B.N. (2013). Aeration tank settling and real time control as a
tool to improve the hydraulic capacity and treatment efficiency during
wet weather: results from 7 years' full-scale operational data. Water
Science & Technology, 67(10), 21692176
Thomsen, H.R. and nnerth, T.B. (2009). Results and benefits from
practical application of ICA on more than 50 wastewater systems over a
period of 15 years. Keynote presentation, 10th IWA conference on
instrumentation, control and automation, Cairns, Australia, June 2009.
Vanrolleghem, P.A., Benedetti, L. and Meirlaen, J. (2005). Modelling
and real-time control of the integrated urban wastewater system.
Environmental Modelling & Software 20(4), 427-442.
Weijers, S.R., De Jonge, J., Van Zanten, O., Benedetti, L., Langeveld,

07-05-2016 0:14

Control of Wastewater Treatment Plants - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the ...

12 of 12

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/ControlofWastewaterTreatmentPlants?x...

J., Menkveld, H.W., and Van Nieuwenhuijzen, A.F. (2012). KALLISTO:


cost effective and integrated optimization of the urban wastewater
system Eindhoven. Water Practice and Technology, 7(2), 1-9.
Wilderer, P.A. and Schreff, D. (2000). Decentralized and centralized
wastewater management: a challenge for technology developers. Water
Science and Technology, 41(1) 1-8.
Yuan, Z., Oehmen, A., Peng, Y., Ma, Y and Keller, J. (2008) Sludge
population optimisation in biological wastewater treatment systems
through on-line process control: a re/view. Re/View in Environmental
Science and Bio/Technology. 7(3): 243-254.

CREATED

by Alex Cruden on 2015/11/10


12:43

07-05-2016 0:14

You might also like