TY - JOUR
T1 - Using plant data to estimate biodegradable COD fractions – case study kwaMashu WWTP
AU - Brouckaert, Barbara
AU - Brouckaert, Christopher
AU - Singh, Akash
AU - Pillay, Kaverajen
AU - Flores-Alsina, Xavier
AU - Ikumi, David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - A modelling study is under way in preparation for a planned upgrade of the capacity of the kwaMashu WWTP in eThekwini, South Africa, from 50 to 80 ML/d. When the configuration of an existing plant is to be changed, the most critical part of the model calibration is the influent wastewater fractionation. However, the constantly varying characteristics of wastewater make experimental determination of an adequately representative set of components difficult, time-consuming and expensive, which constitutes significant barriers to the adoption of modelling by many municipalities. Compliance and process monitoring generate large sets of influent measurements of chemical oxygen demand (COD), free and saline ammonia (FSA), total suspended solids (TSS), etc., but these are insufficient for modelling purposes. In particular, biodegradability is not routinely measured. However, since influent fractionation is designed to predict the fate of material in the wastewater treatment process, it should be possible to infer the fractionation from a combination of influent and plant measurements. This case study demonstrates the application of a pair of modelling tools, a probabilistic influent fractionator and a simplified steady‑state plant‑wide model, to estimate the influent fractionation, together with certain unmeasured or unreliable operational parameters.
AB - A modelling study is under way in preparation for a planned upgrade of the capacity of the kwaMashu WWTP in eThekwini, South Africa, from 50 to 80 ML/d. When the configuration of an existing plant is to be changed, the most critical part of the model calibration is the influent wastewater fractionation. However, the constantly varying characteristics of wastewater make experimental determination of an adequately representative set of components difficult, time-consuming and expensive, which constitutes significant barriers to the adoption of modelling by many municipalities. Compliance and process monitoring generate large sets of influent measurements of chemical oxygen demand (COD), free and saline ammonia (FSA), total suspended solids (TSS), etc., but these are insufficient for modelling purposes. In particular, biodegradability is not routinely measured. However, since influent fractionation is designed to predict the fate of material in the wastewater treatment process, it should be possible to infer the fractionation from a combination of influent and plant measurements. This case study demonstrates the application of a pair of modelling tools, a probabilistic influent fractionator and a simplified steady‑state plant‑wide model, to estimate the influent fractionation, together with certain unmeasured or unreliable operational parameters.
KW - COD fractionation
KW - Data reconciliation
KW - Parameter identifiability
KW - Plant-wide model
U2 - 10.2166/wst.2022.314
DO - 10.2166/wst.2022.314
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 36378165
AN - SCOPUS:85142400869
SN - 0273-1223
VL - 86
SP - 2045
EP - 2058
JO - Water Science and Technology
JF - Water Science and Technology
IS - 9
ER -