Benchmark Simulation Model No 2: finalisation of plant layout and default control strategy

Abstract

The COST/IWA Benchmark Simulation Model No 1 (BSM1) has been available for almost a decade. Its primary purpose has been to create a platform for control strategy benchmarking of activated sludge processes. The fact that the research work related to the benchmark simulation models has resulted in more than 300 publications worldwide demonstrates the interest in and need of such tools within the research community. Recent efforts within the IWA Task Group on “Benchmarking of control strategies for WWTPs” have focused on an extension of the benchmark simulation model. This extension aims at facilitating control strategy development and performance evaluation at a plant-wide level and, consequently, includes both pretreatment of wastewater as well as the processes describing sludge treatment. The motivation for the extension is the increasing interest and need to operate and control wastewater treatment systems not only at an individual process level but also on a plant-wide basis. To facilitate the changes, the evaluation period has been extended to one year. A prolonged evaluation period allows for long-term control strategies to be assessed and enables the use of control handles that cannot be evaluated in a realistic fashion in the one week BSM1 evaluation period. In this paper, the finalised plant layout is summarised and, as was done for BSM1, a default control strategy is proposed. A demonstration of how BSM2 can be used to evaluate control strategies is also given.