The relevance of the design characteristics to the optimal operation of wastewater treatment plants: Energy cost assessment

Abstract

Operational parameters of the wastewater treatment process do not always fit the design ones for several reasons, such as the seasonality or an inaccurate estimation of the population connected. This fact has an effect on the performance of the Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) and their energy costs. The aim of this paper is to develop a cost function for the energy cost that takes into account the mismatching between the design and the operational inflow. For this purpose, a performance index is constructed in order to represent how far the operational inflow is from the design one, and will be included in the cost model. Moreover, three cost functions, depending on the size of the plants are developed in order to provide the managers of the WWTPs with valuable information that could be used to optimise the wastewater treatment process.

Keywords: Cost model; Energy cost; Operational indicator; Wastewater.