IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i23p6406-d456051.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cost Optimization of Wastewater and Septage Treatment Process

Author

Listed:
  • Beata Karolinczak

    (Faculty of Building Services, Hydro and Environmental Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 20 Nowowiejska St., 00-653 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Rafał Miłaszewski

    (Faculty of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Cardinal Wyszyński University in Warsaw, 1/3 Wóycickiego St., 01-938 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Wojciech Dąbrowski

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, Bialystok University of Technology, 45E Wiejska St., 15-351 Bialystok, Poland)

Abstract

Analysis of the current knowledge has revealed the lack of a method for increasing the cost-effectiveness of wastewater and septage treatment in plants overloaded by contamination. This was the premise for undertaking research on the process of septage pre-treatment in a subsurface vertical flow constructed wetland (SS-VF) prior to its input into the biological section of a municipal treatment plant. In previous research the authors have indicated that this allows for a significant reduction in the value of pollution indicators. The objective of this paper is to assess the cost-effectiveness of this process by means of an optimization model. The decision variable was the coefficient of septage stream distribution into the quantity directed to the SS-VF bed in relation to its total quantity. The optimization criterion was the minimization of the expected annual cost of wastewater and septage treatment. Verification of the model has shown that it is reasonable to subject all septage to the pre-treatment in a SS-VF bed for small wastewater treatment plant (WWTPs) located in rural areas. The bigger the septage pollution load is, the greater the reduction in the treatment costs. The proposed solution is less cost-effective in urban areas, where the construction of a SS-VF bed requires land purchase and additional costs of its adjustment. Optimization results largely depend on the cost function, so it is important to build it on reliable local data.

Suggested Citation

  • Beata Karolinczak & Rafał Miłaszewski & Wojciech Dąbrowski, 2020. "Cost Optimization of Wastewater and Septage Treatment Process," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:23:p:6406-:d:456051
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/23/6406/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/23/6406/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. TYTECA, Daniel, 1981. "Nonlinear programming model of wastewater treatment plant. And Daniel TYTECA and Yves SMEERS. Nonlinear programming design of wastewater treatment plant," LIDAM Reprints CORE 452, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Magda Dudek & Marcin Dębowski & Joanna Kazimierowicz & Marcin Zieliński & Piera Quattrocelli & Anna Nowicka, 2022. "The Cultivation of Biohydrogen-Producing Tetraselmis subcordiformis Microalgae as the Third Stage of Dairy Wastewater Aerobic Treatment System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Bartosz Szeląg & Szymon Sobura & Renata Stoińska, 2023. "Application of Multispectral Images from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Analyze Operations of a Wastewater Treatment Plant," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Joanna Kazimierowicz & Marcin Dębowski, 2022. "Aerobic Granular Sludge as a Substrate in Anaerobic Digestion—Current Status and Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-24, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:23:p:6406-:d:456051. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.