Application of Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation in Selection of Best Sludge Dewatering Option in Ghods Town WWTP in Tehran

he design and upgrade of sludge treatment systems generally depend on the decision made regarding the appropriate system from among the options available. The selection process has become increasingly important and complex due to recent technological developments that have led to increased diversity in the available options which offer a wide variety of capabilities. The multi-criteria decision making method is one of the techniques recently developed which takes into account all the criteria involved in the decision making process. The Ghods Town WWTP in the west of Tehran located in the vicinity of residential areas has given rise to claims by citizens due to the odors emitted by the sludge sand drying bed, which justifies the replacement of the present sludge dewatering system. For this purpose, the multi-criteria decision making method based on the fuzzy synthetic evaluation method was used to identify the optimal sludge dewatering system appropriate for the WWTP under consideration. Furthermore, weighting of the subjective (social, environmental, and administrative) criteria was accomplished using the analytical hierarchy process and the objective (i.e., economic) criteria were weighted using the entropy concept. In this method, the triangular fuzzy membership function was also used to take into account the uncertainty associated with each of the decision making parameters. Based on the results obtained, the belt filter press dewatering system and the filter press were identified as the preferred solutions.