Enhanced operation of a wastewater treatment process by periodic forcing input

This paper considers investigating the performance of a wastewater treatment plant consisting of a bioreactor with recycle followed by a clarifier under forced feed circulation. A previously developed dynamic model for the process is used to conduct the performance analysis. The static version of the model was utilized first to determine the optimal productivity conditions for the process. Numerical optimization is used to design the feed periodic function. The parameters of the feed cyclic functions are determined which resulted in improved productivity and substrate consumption. The improvement in productivity is marginal and is satisfactory for substrate conversion compared to that of the optimal condition and to the steady state condition, which corresponds to the average value of the periodic function.