aalto1 untyped-item.component.html
Predictive control of wastewater treatment plants as energy-autonomous water resource recovery facilities
Loading...
Access rights
openAccess
CC BY
CC BY
Creative Commons license
Except where otherwised noted, this item's license is described as openAccess
publishedVersion
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
This publication is imported from Aalto University research portal.
View publication in the Research portal (opens in new window)
View/Open full text file from the Research portal (opens in new window)
View publication in the Research portal (opens in new window)
View/Open full text file from the Research portal (opens in new window)
Unless otherwise stated, all rights belong to the author. You may download, display and print this publication for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Date
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
12
Series
Control Engineering Practice, Volume 172
Abstract
This work proposes an automatic control solution for the operation of conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as energy-autonomous water resource recovery facilities. We first conceptualize a classification of the quality of treated water for three resource recovery applications (environmental, industrial, and agricultural water reuse). We then present an output-feedback model predictive controller (Output MPC) that operates a plant to produce water of a specific quality class, while also producing sufficient biogas to ensure nonpositive energy costs. Using well-established simulation models, we analyze the controller performance on the long-term operation of a biological WWTP subjected to typical influent loads and periodically changing quality targets. Our experiments show that conventional WWTPs are flexible enough to transition from pollution abatement to resource recovery. The plant is also shown to have an energy-positive operating regime, that is, it can recover more energy than needed for its operation. Under closed-loop operation, the WWTP achieves the nutrient recovery targets while producing 83 GWh/year of surplus energy, with an average throughput of 2 385 kWh/day. The results provide a proof-of-concept for the energy-autonomous operation of existing wastewater treatment infrastructure with control strategies that are general enough to accommodate different resource recovery tasks.
Description
Other note
Citation
Neto, O B L, Mulas, M, Harjunkoski, I & Corona, F 2026, 'Predictive control of wastewater treatment plants as energy-autonomous water resource recovery facilities', Control Engineering Practice, vol. 172, 106888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conengprac.2026.106888