Evaluation of the effluent concentrations of Karbala wastewater treatment plant using reliability analysis

Abstract

Abstract The effective and consistent operation of wastewater treatment plant systems (WWTPs) is crucial for the sustainability of the environment and public health protection. The main objective of the present study is concentrated on assessing the reliability of the Karbala wastewater treatment plant’s (WWTP’s) performance. It investigates the plant’s efficiency through the weekly concentration values of three key water quality indicators, which are biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) collected over 4 years of operation from 2020 to 2023. The methods employed were the coefficient of reliability (COR) method for plant performance in removing the effluent concentrations of 5-day biochemical oxygen demand, COD, and TSS. The analysis found that the COR values were generally close to 1 for all years, with the lowest value recorded at 0.71 in 2020, during the initial stabilization phase of the WWTP. The main finding was that the Karbala WWTP has been effective in pollutant removal. The present study is important because it supplies dependable data that wastewater treatment operators can use to assess their daily operations and gauge the success of biological treatment methods. It is worth noting that no study has been done on the reliability model for examining the quality of wastewater of the Karbala WWTP, and such a method of analysis is considered a new improvement for the evaluation of the plant to meet the Iraqi standards.