Experience with guidelines for wastewater characterisation in The Netherlands

Abstract

In this paper experiences and results are presented with guidelines for wastewater characterisation that are standardised in the Netherlands for modelling purposes with ASM. The wastewater characterisation is based on a physical-chemical method to characterise the soluble and particulate fractions, combined with a BOD-analysis for characterising the biodegradable fraction of the influent COD. By following the guidelines, a sufficiently detailed and practical characterisation is obtained, and the results can be used for simulation studies on treatment plants for process optimisation, trouble-shooting and design assistance. At present, five years of experience is gained with the guidelines and they were used for the simulation of circa 100 treatment plants. The guidelines are evaluated as simple and easy to implement in routine analysis programs.