Nonlinear model-based dissolved oxygen control in a biological wastewater treatment process

Abstract

The dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration has been an important process parameter in the biological wastewater treatment process (WWTP). In this paper, we propose a nonlinear control scheme to maintain the dissolved oxygen level of an activated sludge system. Without any linearization or model reduction, it can directly incorporate the nonlinear DO process model with on-line estimation of the respiration rate (R) and the oxygen transfer rate (K(L)a). Simulation results show that it outperforms a control performance of the PID controller. Since it incorporates the process disturbance and nonlinearity in the controller design, the suggested method can efficiently deal with the operating condition changes that occur frequently in the wastewater treatment process.