Multiple-objective evaluation of wastewater treatment plant control alternatives

Besides the evaluation of the environmental issues, the correct assessment of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) should take into account several objectives such as: economic e.g. operation costs; technical e.g. risk of suffering microbiology-related TSS separation problems; or legal e.g. accomplishment with the effluent standards in terms of the different pollution loads. For this reason, the main objective of this paper is to show the benefits of complementing the environmental assessment carried out by life cycle assessment with economical, technical and legal criteria. Using a preliminary version of the BSM2 as a case study, different combinations of controllers are implemented, simulated and evaluated. In the following step, the resulting multi-criteria matrix is mined using multivariate statistical techniques. The results showed that the presence of an external carbon source addition, the type of aeration system and the TSS controller are the key elements creating the differences amongst the alternatives. Also, it was possible to characterize the different control strategies according to a set of aggregated criteria. Additionally, the existing synergies amongst different objectives and their consequent trade-offs were identified. Finally, it was discovered that from the initial extensive list of evaluation criteria, only a small set of five are really discriminant, being useful to differentiate within the generated alternatives.