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Feedforward aeration control of a Biocos wastewater

Water Science and Technology Vol 43 No 3 pp 85–91 © IWA Publishing 2001

treatment plant
B. Wett and K. Ingerle
Institute for Environmental Engineering, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 13, A-6020 Innsbruck,
Austria

Abstract The Biocos strategy as a cyclical time controlled activated sludge system shows a great variability
in operation and control. One topic such a type of treatment plant has to deal with is the optimum relation
between aerobic and anoxic conditions. The aeration control has to adapt the length of the nitrification
phases to the current constraints in order to save operational costs and maximise nitrogen elimination. Since
wastewater treatment plants up to a certain size are usually not equipped with on-line nitrogen probes,
influent flow and temperature can be taken as control parameters for the aeration system. The defined
relation between influent flow and ammonia load is based on measurements and the relation between
ammonia load and required aeration time is model based.
Keywords Activated sludge; aeration control; Biocos; cyclical wastewater treatment; nitrogen elimination

Introduction
As is commonly known biological nitrogen elimination is a two step process with each step
requiring different boundary conditions. Presuming intermittent aeration the length of the
aeration periods is the key parameter to define aerobic conditions. The lower limit of the
required aeration time is fixed by the given NH4–N effluent standards. The upper limit of
aeration time is defined by the goal to promote denitrification during anoxic conditions and
not to waste energy. Therefore both steps - nitrification and denitrification – should be kept
in the right balance by a proper aeration control.
Since aeration aims at defined NH4–N concentrations, an ammonia based aeration con-
trol would be the first choice. The appropriate way is to employ a feedback control loop in
order to manipulate the aeration device according to the measured ammonia effluent values
(Marlin, 1995). Nevertheless on-line measurements of ammonia are not available at any
plant because of high investment costs and effort for maintenance. But on-line measure-
ments of influent flow and temperature are usually installed even at smaller treatment
works and could be used in a feedforward control. The aim is to analyse the interactions
between feed flow, temperature, aeration and nitrogen effluent concentrations and to
formulate a fixed control function for the aeration system.

Biocos strategy
The aeration control is applied to the Biocos strategy which will be introduced first and fitted
into the categories of cyclic activated sludge systems. Irvine suggested at the last SBR confer-
ence in Munich (Irvine et al., 1997) “that all cars should not be given the name of one single
car”. In this way he tried to explain as simple as he could that all periodic processes should not
be classified as SBRs. Two main activated sludge systems can be distinguished – Single Tank
Technology with no separate clarification and continuous flow systems with clarification in a
separate tank. Continuous flow systems provide a constant water level as an additional char-
acteristic whereas single tank systems can be operated either with constant or variable vol-
ume. Between the two main systems with time or space control so-called combined systems
are situated which try to combine features from both strategies (Figure 1). Biodenitro and 85
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B. Wett and K. Ingerle

Figure 1 Classification of activated sludge systems with Biocos combining features from Single Tank
Technology and continuous flow systems

Figure 2 Flow- and operational scheme of a Biocos plant

Biocos are two examples for combined systems both operated periodically. The Biodenitro
system (Isaacs, 1997; Christensen, 1975) shows alternating flow patterns and the aeration is
switched from one reactor to the other. So the biological reactors are operated periodically
and the settler continuously. A Biocos system is operated just the other way round: continu-
ous operation of the biological reactor and periodic operation of the settling compartments.
A Biocos plant is a cyclical activated sludge system with a continuous influent flow and
a continuous effluent flow and is therefore operated at constant water levels. These opera-
tional features are achieved by a configuration of three reactors. The influent flow is fed to
an aerated reactor – the B-reactor, which is followed by two parallel SU-reactors. The SU-
reactors are operated according to the single tank-technology. The time control of the
86 Biocos system provides a settling phase and a discharge phase in order to withdraw
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B. Wett and K. Ingerle

Figure 3 Daily variation of influent flow, concentration and load at the WWTP Längenfeld

supernatant water from the SU-reactors. Due to alternating operation the effluent valve of
one of the two SU-reactors is open and enables the influent flow to displace supernatant
water. During this period activated sludge is disposed from the B-reactor to one SU-reactor.
Therefore the sludge concentrations need an equalisation after each discharge phase.
During the mixing phase the content of the B-reactor is pumped into the SU-reactor near
the bottom causing a return flow at the surface until the circulation has balanced the
concentrations.
In the SU-reactors endogenous denitrification takes place beneath the settling sludge
blanket because of high sludge concentrations and a lack of easily degradable carbon.
Additionally the denitrification process is promoted in the B-reactor by an interruption of
the aeration during the mixing phase and eventually at the beginning of the settling phase.
The duration of this interruption is the manipulated variable of the aeration control.

Measured correlation between flow and ammonia load

A conventional SBR system is fed discontinuously from a storage tank or the influent flow
is parted between several parallel SBRs. Thus usually always the same amount of waste-
water is treated within every operation cycle. In contrast to this strategy the Biocos system
employs no devices for hydraulic equalisation of the influent flow. The actual influent flow
determines the required length of the aeration phase, i.e. the oxygen demand depends on the
influent organic and nitrogen load.
Especially if the WWTP is fed by a separated sewer system with hardly any contribution
of stormwater a sufficient correlation between flow and load can be observed. The follow-
ing example considers the Biocos plant Längenfeld (10,000 PE) in western Austria 87
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B. Wett and K. Ingerle

Figure 4 Correlation between NH4–N load and influent flow

(Ingerle, 1998). The profiles of influent flow and concentrations show the characteristic
daily variations of smaller communities, both with a maximum about 2.5 times higher than
the minimum. Thus the load peak as the product of flow and concentration is about seven
times higher than the load minimum (Figure 3).
Since flow and concentration peaks superimpose each other, influent flow and load
show an empirical nonlinear correlation derived from representative measurement data
(Figure 4). In general the ammonia load can be expressed as a exponential function of the
influent flow:
LNH 4 = c ∗ Q k (1)
LNH 4 ammonia load
Q influent flow
c, k fitted parameters.

Model based correlation between ammonia load and aeration

While the relation between flow and load is directly measurable the relation between load
and required aeration depends on the system and the boundary conditions. A model as a
mathematical system description has to be developed which is able to regard the nonlinear
system behaviour and the effects of control actions under dynamic boundary conditions.
This requirement means a discrete consideration in time and space in order to take biokinet-
ic processes, sedimentation processes and transport interactions between different reactors
into account. For these reasons a three layer settler model was linked with the appropriate
IAWQ ASM No.1 and modified according to the characteristic system features (Wett and
Rauch, 1996; 1999).
At the considered day of measurement in Figure 4 no setpoint of the aeration controller
was adjusted. Therefore the oxygen concentration in the B-reactor reached values (9 mg/l)
near saturation and respiration hardly decreased the O2 level to zero during the nonaerated
periods. That is the reason for the observed high nitrate concentration and the ammonia
concentration near zero which facilitated the calibration of the transport parameters. The
profile of the nitrate concentration in the top layer of a SU-reactor during one operation
cycle outlines the characteristics of the system. During the settling phase the nitrate con-
centration decreases because of endogenous denitrification in the thickener layer and the
compression zone. Nitrate rises again due to NO3 transport from the B-reactor during the
88 discharge phase. At the beginning of the mixing phase the nitrate drops down because of an
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B. Wett and K. Ingerle

Figure 5 Model calibration. Daily variations of ammonia and nitrate in the top layer of the SU-reactor and the
uncontrolled oxygen concentration in the B-reactor (2.9.1998 at WWTP Längenfeld; 5800 PE load;
Temp.=14,4ºC; MLSS=3.8 g/l)

Figure 6 Model verification. Results of an 11 days simulation period compared to measurements

(26.9.1998 at WWTP Längenfeld; oxygen setpoint at 2.25 mg/l; 5100 PE load;Temp.=13.7ºC;
MLSS=4.1 g/l; sludge retention time SRT=23 days)

instantaneous concentration balance of all three layers in the SU-reactor. Due to the circu-
lation between the B- and the SU-reactor the nitrate concentration increases again to the
equalised level.
During the following weeks the oxygen level in the B-reactor was adjusted to a setpoint
of 2.25 mg/l. The interruptions of the aeration still lasted 30 minutes. With this fixed adjust-
ment nitrification and denitrification showed a satisfying balance. In order to verify the fit-
ted model parameters a simulation period of 11 days was calculated. The daily average
influent loads measured in composite samples had been varied according to the distribu-
tions of Figure3 and formed input files for the model calculation. The simulated profile of
ammonia and nitrate concentrations showed a sufficient correspondence to the measured
values of grab samples as demonstrated in Figure 6.

Optimised aeration control

After verification of the model predicted effluent concentrations calculated from given
influent values a variation of the aeration control could be analysed. The oxygen setpoint
was not changed but the duration of the nonaerated periods was. At the beginning of each
operation cycle the actual ammonia load was calculated from the influent flow during the 89
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preceding cycle according to Eq. 1) (resp. Figure 4). The required aeration time Tair
depends on this ammonia load with no regard to the COD-load. The organic load influences
the oxygen consumption but is not a limiting factor for the aeration time. At constant oxy-
gen level and ammonia concentrations not too close to zero a linear relation between aera-
tion time Tair and nitrified ammonia load LNH can be assumed:
4
Tair = l LNH 4 (2)
B. Wett and K. Ingerle

l aeration time per kg NH 4 – N

Tair = l c Q k = m Q k (3)
m, k fitted parameters.

This exponential function expresses the demand for aeration of the considered system at a
fixed oxygen level. The model based parameter fitting of m and k of Eq. (3) aimed at con-
stant ammonia effluent values around 2 mg/l and led to shorter aeration intervals during
night-time (see Figure 7). Additionally the operation cycle time was shortened from 160 to
120 minutes in order to reduce concentration discontinuities.
Beside daily load variations especially weekly or seasonal load variations are a matter of
concern. For example in the tourist catchment area of Längenfeld the weekly average load
varies between 4000 and 10,000 PE. Moreover the water temperature shows a range of vari-
ation from 5 to 15ºC. To implement the influence of temperature in the control system, the
temperature dependency of autotrophic biomass has to be determined. The autotrophic
growth rate µ(temp) at the actual temperature can be derived from the growth rate µ(20ºC)
at a temperature of 20ºC by following expression:

µ (Temp) = µ (20 º C) e ( m *( Temp – 20)) (4)

Figure 7 Performance of a Biocos plant employing a flow dependent aeration control (same boundary
conditions as considered in Figure 6)

90 Figure 8 Scheme of the feed forward control loop of the aeration system
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Temp actual temperature

m coefficient about 0.098 (Gujer, 1985)
This expression can be adapted to a temperature coefficient kTemp of the nitrification
period Tair of the system considered in Figure 6. The temperature coefficient kTemp at the
actual temperature (Temp=13.7ºC) is set to 1 and the coefficient k20 at 20ºC can be
calculated:
kTemp = 1 = k20 e ( m *(Temp – 20))

B. Wett and K. Ingerle

(5)

Finally the temperature coefficient kTemp of any given temperature can be implemented in
Eq. (3):

mQ k
Tair = (6)
kTemp
aeration time depending on flow and temperature.
After evaluation of the control strategy at different loads in model reality it can be
applied in full-scale reality. According to the general feed forward control scheme
(Stephanoupoulos, 1984) the measured disturbance is represented by the influent flow and
the water temperature. The control unit calculates the required aeration time and the
duration of the aeration period as the manipulated variable is set (Figure 8).

Conclusions
Three issues or statements can be extracted from this presentation:
• An example for the application of a model based aeration control is given. The model is
not applied for real time control purposes but for supporting the development of a fixed
control law.
• Also treatment works with only basic monitoring equipment are not necessarily exclud-
ed from flexible control and automation. For instant flowmeter and temperature meas-
urement can be involved in a feedforward control loop for the aeration system.
• Cyclical time controlled wastewater treatment systems are well suited for adjusting to
varying boundary conditions.

References
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