title: Practical automatic control of a sequencing batch reactor for toxic wastewater treatment.
abstract: This paper investigates the application of a practical and robust control strategy for the operation of a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) used for toxic wastewater treatment. The strategy sets the operational conditions of the SBR based on the on-line information collected during the previous batch. In particular, it sets the exchange volume of the reactor, as well as the batch reaction duration by optimizing the amount of mass of substrate in the influent treated per time unit. The optimization uses an experimentally calibrated mathematical model of the previous SBR cycle, found using the on-line dissolved oxygen concentration measurement data. The results show the applicability of the methodology to treat synthetic wastewater containing 4-chlorophenol as model toxic compound as sole source of carbon and energy. It correctly detects changes in the influent concentration and appropriately sets the operational parameters of the process.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Research on Advanced Processes for Water Treatment, Instituto de Ingeniería, Unidad Académica Juriquilla, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Blvd. Juriquilla 3001, Querétaro 76230, México.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Pat
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Buitrón
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology; D002138:Calibration; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical