Mathematical modeling and modification of an activated sludge benchmark process evaluated by multiple performance criteria

Optimal modification of an activated sludge process (ASP) evaluated by multiple performance criteria was studied. A benchmark process in BSM1 was taken as a target process. Four indexes of percentage of effluent violation (PEV), energy consumption (OCI), total volume of tanks (TV) and total suspended solid in tank5 (TSSa5), were criteria and eleven process parameters were decision variables, making up the multiple criteria optimization model, which was solved by non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) in MATLAB. Pareto solutions were obtained; one solution (opt1) was selected based on the authors' decision for a further analysis. Results show that the process with opt1 strategy exhibits much better performance of PEV and OCI than with the default, being improved by 74.17% and 9.97% specifically under dry influent and without control. These results indicated that the multiple criterion optimization method is very useful for modification of an ASP.