Fuzzy control of disturbances in a wastewater treatment process

This paper describes a real-time process control scheme to cope with the problem of input disturbances in wastewater treatment processes, based on a fuzzy inferential control system. This can detect the presence of a dangerous input conditions whenever either organic overload or inhibitory/toxic compounds are present in the raw wastewater. Based on this diagnosis, a set of fuzzy rules are implemented to divert the process flow and bring the system back into a safe state. The control system was designed and tested using a pilot plant, to which a toxic disturbance was applied. Its behaviour with and without fuzzy control are compared, and the process reliability improvement in the controlled case is demonstrated.