Predictive Adaptive Control of an Activated Sludge Wastewater Treatment Process

This paper presents an application regarding a model based predictive adaptive controller used to improve the effluent quality of a  conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment process. The adaptive control scheme consists of two modules: a robust parameter estimator and a predictive controller. The controller design is based on the process model obtained by recursive estimation. The performances of the adaptive control algorithm are investigated and compared to the non - adaptive one . Both the set point tracking and the regulatory performances have been tested. The results show that this control strategy will help overcome the challenge for maintaining the discharged water quality to meet the regulations.