Performance Verification of Biological Sludge Reduction Process Modeling Using ASM-Based Models

Understanding the mechanism behind biological sludge reduction and capturing that mechanism in mathematical models and the simulators built around them ensures that wastewater treatment plants incorporating the Cannibal™ process are designed based on scientific principles rather than empirical observation. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the ability of a proposed model structure describing the transformations occurring in the Cannibal process to successfully capture full-scale performance based on a rigorous comparison of full-scale operating data and a complete influent characterization. The results presented here demonstrate that the performance of the Cannibal process can successfully be predicted using the proposed modeling approach but the results are strongly influenced by the parameters describing the solids separation module. The best-fit parameters describing the solids separation module were determined using a grid search analysis and the sensitivity of the key predicted results to adjustments in assumed parameter values was examined.