Modelling solution for estimating aeration energy of wastewater treatment plants

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openAccess

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2021-12-15

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

11
3941-3951

Series

Water Science and Technology, Volume 84, issue 12

Abstract

Energy costs in the wastewater industry are increasing due to increasing trends in electricity rates and more stringent requirements for effluent quality. Wastewater aeration process is typically the largest energy consumer of the treatment plant and the optimization of the aeration process can offer significant savings for the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Utilization of dynamic models can offer optimization solutions for improving the energy efficiency and process performance. In this work a simplified modelling approach emphasizing the control valves and the blowers is tested by developing aeration system models for two Finnish WWTPs. The developed model requires calibration of only a single parameter and the results from the simulations showed that reasonable estimations of the aeration systems energy demand could be made with a limited knowledge on the details of the physical system. The promising results highlight the strong influence of the control valve positioning to the whole system and indicate that airflow distribution along the system could be estimated simply from the positioning of the valves. The presented modelling approach allows the comparison between different blower and control valve alternatives during operation and for the process upgrades and offers prospect for improving the aeration operation control strategies.

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Keywords

aeration, dynamic model, energy efficiency, wastewater, SYSTEMS, BLOWER

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Citation

Poyry, L, Ukkonen, P, Mulas, M & Mikola, A 2021, ' Modelling solution for estimating aeration energy of wastewater treatment plants ', Water Science and Technology, vol. 84, no. 12, pp. 3941-3951 . https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2021.481