Abstract
Analysis of wastewater treatment plant reliability is a difficult process, therefore it is often limited to selected aspects, e.g., mechanical reliability of equipment or technological availability of the process. The research presents a method of combining the above mentioned aspects in order to determine the complex operational availability index (CAVO). A hypothetical technological system with activated sludge (AS) in a typical layout (denitrification-nitrification) was selected for the studies. A number of operational scenarios have been developed, taking into account the possible mechanical failures of system components. Computer simulations with the use of Activated Sludge Model No.1 (ASM1), performed for selected scenarios allowed the determination of a complex operational availability of the system. Obtained results confirm high reliability of AS system in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solids (TSS) removal (CAVO > 0.96) and indicate the necessity of further research in order to determine representative value of reliability of total nitrogen removal (from the study, CAVO-Ntot < 0.4) and to evaluate other technological solutions in terms of their complex reliability.
Highlights
Reliability of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) can be defined as the probability of adequate performance, over a specified period of time and under specified operating conditions
An additional element of the analysis should be a qualitative assessment of system reliability using such methods as: Fault tree analysis (FTA), Event tree analysis (ETA), Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) and Critical component analysis (CCA)
They can be omitted from simulations because of the insignificant impact on the overall probability calculated by Equations (4) and (5)
Summary
Reliability of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) can be defined as the probability of adequate performance, over a specified period of time and under specified operating conditions. Since sewage treatment plant facilities usually have a complex technical structure, the CCA method in conjunction with FMEA seems to be important, as it allows to indicate those component-application relations which are crucial for the reliability of the entire facility. These methods were developed by the United States Environmental Protection
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