• What is the problem/issue being addressed?
In the last decades, increased awareness about the negative impact of eutrophication on the quality of water bodies and advances in environmental technology have given rise to more stringent wastewater treatment regulations and cost control in line with the EU policy. For instance, more stringent wastewater plant effluent quality and lower operational costs will compel wastewater communities to enhance the treatment efficiency. However, WWTPs are typically manipulated unefficiently due to difficult-to-measure variables, equipment and process faults as well as the resulted inaccurate control strategeis around the entire wastewater system. (i) Due to the extreme working conditions, the highly complex processes of microbial growth and large measurement delays, the measurements of effluent quality, such as BOD5 (biochemical oxygen demand for 5 days), COD (chemical oxygen demand), and TN (total nitrogen) as well as N2O, are usually difficult; (ii) Due to a large number of sensors and automation systems being equipped to collect process data as well as operate WWTPs, fault management is indispensible and able to better safe operations, which is viewed as a set of activities: fault detection, diagnosis, prognosis and maintenance; (iii) Depending on the difficult-to-measure variables and accurate fault diagnosis, accurate design of control strategies could further enhance the wastewater treatment efficiency with lower costs. Recognising and solving aforementioned problems would deliver system optimisation with tremendous economic and environmental benefits.
• Why is it important for society?
(1) Fristly, this project is able to reduce operational costs due to multiple-beneficial and optimal use of chemcals, then further to lower risk of contamination and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
(2) Secondly, this project helps wastewater industries to meet the stringent effluent qualities and their sustainability targets.
(3) Thirdly, this project expands the ER’s research capacity in four focus areas. (i) WWTP process modelling: ; (ii) Interdisciplinary skills; (iii) Potential industrial applications; (iv) Research collaboration of China and EU, i.e. NSFC-European Commission.
(4) Fouthly, this project can disseminate wastewater management knowledge to society and then to enhance the understanding and awareness of the negative impact of eutrophication.
• What are the overall objectives?
Overall, the essence of this project is to develop and demonstrate a decision-support system to achieve multiple-beneficial and optimal management of a wastewater treatment system. In this light, soft-sensors are developed to sense difficult-to-measure variables. By resorting to the soft-sensors, hidden information can be refined and delivered for sequential fault detection and diagnosis. Then, fault detection and diagnosis are able to ensure safe operations of WWTPs. With the help of soft-sensors amd fault daignosis methodologies, various (Local/global) control strategies as well as coordination of them are developed to optimise operations, such as iron salts dosage, oxidation and inter-recycling. The integrated decision supporting system will thus substantially reduce the use of chemicals and oxidation, delivering large economical and environmental benefits to urban water utilities in the EU. The project will set an excellent example for integrated urban water management in the EU.
