Plantwide integrated automation system for municipal wastewater treatment plant

In general, it is difficult to realize the optimal operation of waste water treatment plant because of its complex nature (e.g., highly nonlinear, seriously coupled, higher order, time-varying and frequent variation of operating condition). An integrated automation system consisting of two layers: process manage system (PMS) and process control system (PCS), is developed to overcome the problem of high production costs in wastewater treatment plants in China because of low automation level. The structure, function and control strategy of the system are discussed. The system proposed in this paper has been successfully applied to the wastewater treatment plant in the southern suburb of Shenyang, realizing the optimal control of overall production index including wastewater treatment yield, treated wastewater quality and production cost. It has been found to provide great benefits for both economy and society.