COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS: APPLICATION OF STATISTICAL METHODS TO LARGE DATA SETS OF EFFLUENT QUALITY PARAMETERS.

References: 13th SGEM GeoConference on Water Resources. Forest, Marine And Ocean Ecosystems, www.sgem.org, SGEM2013 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7105-02-5 / ISSN 1314-2704, June 16-22, 2013, 71 - 78 pp

ABSTRACT

The bibliography on wastewater treatment systems covers a wide range of subjects, including works about small-scale wastewater treatment plants, wastewater plants for industrial processes and plants designed for urban populations with high industrial loads. Despite the numerous comparative studies on different types of urban wastewater treatment plants which use classical statistical tools, such as temporal series, this is still a challenging research issue.
This study presents the results of statistical treatment carried out with influent and effluent characteristics of two wastewater treatment plants: Utiel and Corbera-Llaurí, located in the province of Valencia (Spain).
The Utiel plant is based on a two-stage treatment process. At this site, the database includes records collected between February 2002 and December 2011 for the influent and for the effluent (treated water). Beside daily flow, the parameters analyzed for the influent were: Settling velocity at 60 minutes (V60’), pH, total suspended soils (SST), 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP). Electrical conductivity was also analyzed for the effluent.
The Corbera-Llaurí is a SBR (Sequencing Batch Reactor) plant. The period under analysis was January 2001 to December 2011. The database includes the same parameters as for the Utiel plant, both for influent and treated water.
Statistical analysis of temporal series demonstrated the performance of both systems, showing the effects of the advances that were implemented over the period of study. Additionally, it was possible to establish dependency ratios between the various parameters. This allows the statistical model for these plants to be defined, which may be useful for management purposes, such as minimizing operation costs and optimizing performance in similar plants.

Keywords: Wastewater treatment plants, statistical analysis, temporal series, minimizing operation costs.