Enhancement of sewage sludge thickening and energy self-sufficiency with advanced process control tools in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant

On their path to becoming sustainable facilities, it is required that wastewater treatment plants reduce their energy demand, sludge production, and chemical consumption, as well as increase on-site power generation. This study describes the results obtained from upgrading the sludge line of a full-scale wastewater treatment plant over 6 years (2015-2021) using three advanced process control strategies. The advanced process control tools were designed with the aim of (i) enhancing primary and secondary sludge thickening, (ii) improving anaerobic digestion performance, and (iii) reducing chemical consumption in the sludge line. The results obtained show that the use of advanced process control tools allows for optimising sludge thickening (increasing solids content by 9.5%) and anaerobic digestion (increasing both the removal of volatile solids and specific methane yield by 10%, respectively), while reducing iron chloride and antifoam consumption (by 75% and 53%, respectively). With the strategies implemented, the plant increased its potential energy self-sufficiency from 43% to 51% and reduced de-watered sludge production by 11%. Furthermore, the upgrade required a low investment, with a return of capital expense (CAPEX) in 1.98 years, which presents a promising and affordable alternative for upgrading existing wastewater treatment plants.