Detailed modeling and advanced control for chemical disinfection of secondary effluent wastewater by peracetic acid

Kyriakos Manoli; Siva Sarathy; Roberta Maffettone; Domenico Santoro

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2019.01.022

Detailed modeling and advanced control for chemical disinfection of secondary effluent wastewater by peracetic acid

Water Res. 2019 Apr 15:153:251-262. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.01.022. Epub 2019 Jan 29.

Authors

Kyriakos Manoli¹, Siva Sarathy², Roberta Maffettone², Domenico Santoro³

Affiliations

¹ Trojan Technologies, London, ON, N5V4T7, Canada; Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A5B9, Canada. Electronic address: kmanoli@uwo.ca.
² Trojan Technologies, London, ON, N5V4T7, Canada; Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A5B9, Canada.
³ Trojan Technologies, London, ON, N5V4T7, Canada; Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A5B9, Canada. Electronic address: dsantor@uwo.ca.

PMID: 30731340
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.01.022

Abstract

Advanced control of chemical disinfection processes is becoming increasingly important in view of balancing under-treatment (low pathogen inactivation) and over-treatment (excessive consumption of disinfectant and disinfection byproducts formation) thereby providing considerable environmental and economic benefits. Conventional control strategies such as flow pacing or residual trim ignore chemical demand/decay, inactivation kinetics, and other factors governing disinfection performance in continuous-flow reactors such as reactor hydraulics and process variability. This study presents the development, verification, and pilot-scale validation of a novel CT-based real-time disinfection control strategy, derived from first principles, and applied to peracetic acid disinfection of municipal secondary effluent wastewater. Validation experiments were carried out using a 3-m³ pilot contact basin of which the hydraulic performance was first characterized by means of tracer tests and then mathematically modeled using the well-established theoretical framework of continuous stirred-tank reactors in series. The analytical model describing hydraulic performance was subsequently extended to take into account disinfectant demand/decay and microbial inactivation kinetics. The integrated model was successfully used to predict, and control, residual peracetic acid as well as microbial concentration in the pilot effluent. Validation studies conclusively supported that the novel CT-based control strategy was superior in maintaining constant disinfection performance, desired microbial counts, and low residual disinfectant under variable flow and wastewater quality. When compared with flow pacing, the CT-based control required two times less the amount of chemical for the same treatment objective (<100 cfu/100 mL). Remarkably, the CT-based control strategy could be extended to other chemical disinfection processes such as chlorination and ozonation, alone or in combination with physical treatment technologies such as membranes and ultraviolet irradiation.

Keywords: Advanced process control; CT dose; Chemical disinfection; Peracetic acid; Residual disinfectant; Wastewater disinfection.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Disinfectants*
Disinfection
Peracetic Acid
Wastewater
Water Purification*

Substances

Disinfectants
Waste Water
Peracetic Acid