Adaptive fuzzy pattern recognition in the anaerobic digestion process

This paper addresses the problem of coordinating the operation of several units of a biological wastewater treatment process in order to avoid process failure. The state of the process is monitored through a number of chemical and biological variables and this information is used to infer the plant loading state. After a brief introduction of the plant supervision scheme, the paper describes how the Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) classification algorithm can be used in this application and enhanced with an adaptive capability, enabling the supervisory control system to detect process departure from normal operating conditions.