PFI:BIC: Self-Correcting Energy-Efficient Water Reclamation Systems for Tailored Water Reuse at Decentralized Facilities

Colorado School Of Mines, Golden CO

Investigators

Abstract

Many small communities own and operate small, decentralized wastewater treatment facilities, many of which are old and not flexible enough to adjust for treatment of variable water quality. Many of these communities do not have the resources to improve the treatment system or comply with new discharge regulations. While most wastewater treatment plants are fully automated, including small plants, their susceptibility to failure are high and their ability to quickly recover and resume operation are low. In this project the research team will be developing an innovative smart monitoring and control system to provide early detection of wastewater treatment system failure at small facilities and low-cost, remote monitoring and control systems for small, decentralized wastewater treatment systems. Water reclamation and reuse is not new, but discussions about new paradigms in water reuse, such as direct potable reuse, are accelerating across the country. Thus, when the source of water is explicitly impaired and it is destined to become drinking water, or even water for other beneficial applications, monitoring of water quality, early warning of treatment system failure, responsive operation, and an informed public are all critical to securing future water resources and protecting the public and the environment. A smart sensor network supported by smart data acquisition/processing and system-learning programs will ensure that next generation wastewater treatment systems can operate sustainably and continuously without negative impact on people and the environment. More than ever, plant operators and the public are highly informed and must have better tools to understand water quality and economics of domestic water reuse, and the negative impacts of water contamination. The human-centered system that will be developed through this project will provide these tools and stimulate energy efficiency system behaviors. A unique testbed will be used to conduct this research. It consists of an advance sequencing batch membrane bioreactor (SB-MBR) hybrid system treating >7,000 gal/day of real domestic wastewater. The research team will use this platform to integrate existing and new wireless sensor networks to monitor water quality and for process monitoring and control, to facilitate and test the development of a smart data acquisition/processing and self-learning control system. The smart service system will enable early warning of wastewater treatment plant failure, thus preventing long-term recovery and negative impact on community services. The testbed has five distinctive components: a demo-scale, advanced water reclamation system, a novel sensor network incorporating cutting edge analytical probes and instruments, a novel data processing and self-learning control system, energy management optimization module, and a public interaction center. It will also enable treatment of water to different end quality to produce water for different reuse applications (i.e., tailored water reuse). This new generation, smart system for tailored water reuse will have flexible and adaptable control systems that utilize new, smart sensor technologies, which interact with each other, learn from past performance, and can predict future performance and adapt the system to achieve preset objectives. After testing the new monitoring and control system at a demonstration scale, the team will work with their industrial partners to deploy, incorporate, and test the novel system at existing, decentralized treatment plants. This project is led by the Colorado School of Mines (Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science) and Baylor University (Department of Applied Mathematic and Statistics). Aqua-Aerobic Systems (AAS), Inc. (Rockford IL; small business) and Kennedy/Jenks Consulting (San Francisco, CA; small business) are the primary industrial partners. Additional broader context partners include GE Power & Water (Boulder, CO), Ramey Environmental (Firestone, CO), and Southern Nevada Water Authority (Las Vegas, NV).