Advanced monitoring and control of anaerobic wastewater treatment plants: software sensors and controllers for an anaerobic digester

A mass balanced based model representing the dynamical behaviour of anaerobic digester has served as a basis for the design of software sensors for the concentration of inorganic carbon, alkalinity and volatile fatty acids. The predictions of the sensors are close to the actual off-line measurements. The model has also been used to design a model-based adaptive linearizing controller and a fuzzy controller whose objective is to regulate the ratio of the intermediate alkalinity over the total alkalinity below some desired value (0.3) under which the process is assumed to remain in stable conditions and avoid VFA accumulation. Both controllers were calibrated via extensive numerical simulations and implemented. The controllers proved successful in maintaining the ratio of TA over PA below 0.3, even in presence of large variations of the organic load.