Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Revisiting Seminal WER Papers

Modeling of wastewater treatment processes has advanced significantly in the last ten years to include whole plant simulation models that includes solids treatment and stabilization. Based on a WRF funded project and related research, data and approaches were developed to extend these whole plant models to include dewatering to estimate cake solids concentration and polymer dose. Being able to predict dewaterability and polymer dose has numerous benefits because the performance of dewatering has a significant impact on the overall economics of the solids treatment processes, and the entire Water Resource Recovery Facility’s operational and capital costs. Understanding the impact of a change in an upstream liquid treatment and solids process on downstream dewatering would help utilities better plan and estimate the full costs of these upstream process changes. This paper summarizes several approaches for including dewatering in whole plant simulation models to be able to predict dewatering performance. We will discuss the potential applications and benefits of including dewatering in whole plant models.