Operational parameter prediction of electrocoagulation system in a rural decentralized water treatment plant by interpretable machine learning model

Electrocoagulation (EC) is a promising alternative for decentralized drinking water treatment in rural areas as a chemical-free technology. However, seasonal fluctuations of water quality in influent remain a significant challenge for rural decentralized water supply, which was a potential threat to water safety. The frequent operation was required to ensure the effluent water quality by the experienced technicians, who were in shortage in rural areas. If the operational parameters prediction model based on water quality could be established, it might reduce the dependence on technicians. Therefore, an artificial neural network (ANN) model combined with genetic algorithm (GA) was used to establish a prediction model for unattended intelligent operation. Data on water quality and operational parameters were collected from a practical EC system in a decentralized water treatment plant. Seven water quality parameters (e.g., turbidity, temperature, pH and conductivity) were selected as input variables and the operational current was employed as the output. A non-linear relationship between water quality parameters and the operational current was verified by correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). The mean squared error (MSE) and coefficient of determination (R2) were used as evaluation indexes to optimize the structure of the GA-ANN model. Influent turbidity was identified to be crucial in the GA-ANN model by model interpretation using sensitivity analysis and scenario analysis. The Garson weight of turbidity in the seven input variables achieved 45.4%. The predictive accuracy of the GA-ANN model sharply declined from 90% to 67.1% when influent turbidity data were absent. In addition, it was estimated that energy consumption savings of the GA-ANN method declined by 14.2% in comparison with the gradient control method. This study verifies the feasibility and stability of machine learning strategy for unattended operation in the rural decentralized water treatment plant.