OPTIMAL AERATION CONTROL

FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT

S. Marsili-Libellil
System Science Group, Technical University of Florence,
Via S. Marta 3, 50139 Ft'renze, Italy

Abstract. Dissolved Oxygen (DO) control is of paramount importance in biologi-

cal wastewater treatment processes . This paper proposes a control algorithm to
solve the DO control problem making use of linear quadratic theory and the no-
tion of integral state feedback. An interactive computer aided design (CAD)
package is presented to solve and implement the regulator. Broad applicability
of this package is stressed beyond the present control problem and simulations
are presented to assess the validity of the solution obtained.

Keywords. Activated sludge process; Computer aided design; Direct digital

control; Computer control; Microprocessors; Optimal control; Process control.

INTRODUCTION creased and a flocculant sludge is formed by

The increasing concern for improved water
quality is imposing more demanding wastewater
treatment standards and stimulating the de-
sign of advanced process control policies to
get the best out of treatment units . Tradi-
tionally, steady- state analysis has been used
to deal both with design and operational pro-
blems of biological wastewater treatment
plants, whereas a closer analysis shows that
typically hardly any plant ever operates at
steady-state for the reason that both inflow
rate and pollutant concentration have such
wide variations on a daily and even hourly
basis that the process is never stationary.
The steady- state assumption is therefore
responsible for the many failures that all
too frequently occurr in plant operation and
even when they do not attain macroscopic evi-
dence, still the treatment efficiency may be
severely impaired if short term loading
fluctuations are not timely countermeasured .
The weakness of the steady-state assumption
is particularly evident in the activated
sludge process, widely used for domestic and
sewage wastewater treatment . Activated sludge
is a blend of several microorganism species
which under proper environmental conditions
act as tiny reactors degrading organic matter
and producing in turn carbon dioxide, water
and energy by means of successive oxidations .
Whenever biodegradable pollutant is present
and an appropriate amount of oxygen is sup-
plied to sustain the oxidation process, the
bacteria receive enough energy from the oxi -
dation to increase their biomass transforming
biodegradable matter into protoplasm . In this
way the organic content of wastewater is de-
lThe author is a member of the Italian
Research Group for Environmental Analysis
and Hanagement (GRAGSA).
the growing biomass which can be easily sepa-
rated from the water by sedimentation. As a
resul~water with little organic pollution
is released. A schematic diagram of the acti -
vated sludge process is depicted in Fig . 1 .
Proper aeration is crucial for process effi-
ciency, since a too low DO level would seve-
rely impair the oxidation process and event-
ually lead to biomass starvation, whereas a
too high DO may cause "bulking", i . e . sludg. ,
with poor settling properties. Eccessive
aeration is also undesiderable from an econo-
mic point of view , implying undue energy con-
sumption.
The importance of proper DO level in activa-
ted sludge was underlined by Olsson (1975)
in deriving a mathematical model for the pro-
cess, showing how the oxygen consumption was
due to the various bioactivities and how a
continuous air supply should be provided in
order to make up for the oxygen consumption,
thus securing a biologically sufficient DO
level at all times . More recently, Andrews
and Olsson (1977) advocated DO level control
to a constant value, within the framework of
multiple loop process control, demonstrating
how, under constant DO, the quantity of air
supplied could provide an indication of the
bioactivities in the aerator. Yet, the pro-
blem of designing such a controller remains
fairly open .
This paper will try to provide an answer to
this challenging problem along the following
steps. First, a mathematical description of
the DO dynamics is derived, based on a low-
order model for the aerator bioactivities,
then an optimal control problem is formulated
i~ terms of Linear Quadratic Integral (LQI)
cost functional and solved with respect to
the model just derived . Lastly, the implemen-
tation of the algorithm as a CAD package is

511
512 S. Marsili-Libelli

presented in details together with simula- System input is represented by airflow

tion results. uair [Nm 3/hr], whereas coefficients a and 6
are used to express the biomass concentration
in terms of its oxygen equivalent.
DISSOLVED OXYGEN DYNAMICS
In order to carry out optimal control design
Oxygen consumption is due to biomass synthesis using linear theory results (Kwakernaak and
and to endogenous respiration. The former Sivan, 1972), model (1-3) is linearized about
process is a complex oxidation reaction where an equilibrium point pO={S~ C~ O~ C;,r~ S~UO}
by organic pollutant is converted into new - selected in the mid-range of possible opera-
viable matter, whereas the latter occurrs ting conditions. Expanding eqs. (1-3) about
when insufficient external nutrient is avai- pO and retaining the linear term, yields the
lable and bacteria oxidize their own cellu- linear approximation
lar material. Therefore, the DO dynamics de-
pends on both pollutant disappearance and
biomass growth rates. Detailed, high-order dt;
A t; + B 1'1
models are available to describe these pro- dt
(4 )
cesses (Olsson, 1975; Andrews, 1977), however
their high dimensionality prevented their use 1; C t;
for regulator design. On the other hand, a
completely "black box" approach has been fol- with t; = col(S CO), 1'1 = col(Si r 0i uair)'
lowed in designing simple proportional-inte-
1;= 0 representing the state, input and out-
gral controllers, assuming that the DO dyna-
put vectors displacements from the steady-state
mics could be modelled by a first order lag
values pO. Taking partial derivatives yields
plus dead time (Aarinen and colleagues,1978).
the following expressions
An intermediate way of attack is pursued here,
availing of the following reduced-order model
-klSO o
for the pollutant-biomass interaction (Marsi-
li-Libelli and colleagues, 1978; Marsili-Li-
A= k2so-2k3~ -~(l+ro) o
belli ; 1979) ° CO
-ak 2 S -26k S"
3
d S
dt -klSC - S(l+r)S + SSi (1)
(5 )
2
d C C
k 2 SC - k3:3 - S(l+r)C + SrC (2 )
d t r SO _s'S0 0 0
B= 0 SO(C;-Co) 0 0 (6 )
where S Pollutant concentration in the
aerator [mg/l]. 0 -SoOo SO ~a (Os-0°)
C Biomass concentration in the
aerator [mg / l].
C= [0 0 1] (7)
S.=
~
Input pollutant concentration
[mg / l].
By inspection it can be seen that assuming
Cr = Recycle biomass concentration
uair as the control variable, DO is the only
[mg / l].
state component that can be controlled, where-
r = recycle flowrate ratio.
as the whole state vector can be reconstructed
Q input flowrate [m 3 / hr].
from DO observations. This is consistent with
V aerator tank volume [m 3 ].
the biophysics of the process, since the oxi-
S Q/ V = diluition rate [hr- I ].
dation reactions are largely independent of DO
kl , k 2 , k3 = numerical constants. beyond a certain lower bound. Conversely, the
oxygen consumption, as a consequence of the
bioactivities in the aerator, allows complete
A DO dynamics may be derived from model (1-2)
state inference. Considering the following
taking into account that the synthesis and
numerical values for pO and the constants,
endogenous respiration terms are proportio-
nal to k2SC and k3C 2/ S respectively. Consider SO = 21 [mg / l] CO 287l[mg / l] 0° 2[mg / l]
ing also mass transfer and artificial aeration S~ CO
=350[mg / ljr 10 4 [mg / l] O~ l[mg / lj
terms, yields ~ ~

UO =1 2000[Nm 3 / hr] r O = 50/, SO .14[hr- 1 ]

d 0 kl 7.4 x lO- 4 [mg- 1lhr- 1 j
IC a(O s -0) u a~r
.
dt -L
1. 48 10- 3 [mg- 1lhr-1j
k2
(3) k3 5.2 10- 4 [mg-1lhr-lj
S(l+r)O + SOi
Substituting these values into expressions
(5-6) the linear approximation (4) is numeri-
where K~a
is the artificial aeration transfer
cally specified as follows, Bu denoting the
coeffic~ent, Os the oxygen saturation level
column of matrix B pertaining to uair input,
and 0i the DO content of inflowing sewage.
which is of interest for regulator design.
Natural reaeration is considered negligible.
 Optimal Aeration Control for Wastewater Treatment
-2.3347 -0.0155
A 13 .983 -0. 3212
-3
-0.41 84 -7.86 x10 -2.954
Bu = col(O 0 1.52 x 10- 3)
OPTIMAL CONTROL ALGORITHM
An optimal control strategy should not only
take into account DO infLence on process per-
formance, and therefore accuracy of control
action, but should also consider the economic
side, in this case represented by the energy
expenditure caused by the blowers. It is there
fore advisable to associate a cost functional-
to DO control scheme which allows a balance
between precision of control and related
energy consuption. As to the control structure,
regulator performance would benefit from the
introduction of "integral state" feedback
(Kwakernaak and Sivan, 1972) providing insensi
tivity to constant disturbances of the control
led variable, e . g . biased sensors, and reduc--
ing sens~t~vity to parameter variations. This
latter feature is particularly appropriate
since the design is based on a linear approxi-
mation of the actual process dynamics, thus it
is important to select a control structure
which is least sensitive to possible departu-
re of system parameters from their nominal
design values, thus broadening the validity
of the linear approximation. Let
+ (10 )
be the internal description of a linear
discrete-time process. In addition define the
"inte gral state" as
Then, the augmented system with state (xt,qt)
is represented by the matrices
C = IG
It is now required to determine a control law
so as to minimize the cost functional
T
J = L (14)
a =o
The Linear Quadratic Integral (LQI) problem
has now been formulated. Its solution yields
the linear state feedback control law
+ (15 )
where F = (F ,f ) is the solution of the back-
l 2
ward recursive algorithm
513
(17)
0
0 (8 )
with Q = identity matrixof appropriate dimen-
sions. If the system is both stabilizable and
detectable, the solution of eqs. (16-17)
(9) converges to a non-negative-definite sequence
of matrices P as T~ for any terminal condi-
tion PT~O , thus yielding a steady-state con-
trol law in the form of eq. (15). The overall
closed loop system is depicted in Fig. 2a
showing how the implementation of the control
scheme implies the availability of the whole
state vector. Conversely, it would be desira-
ble to synthetize the control signal availing
only of process output informations. Under
the assumption of detectability, this can be
done converting the state feedback control
scheme of Fig. 2a into the equivalent input-
output representation from which to extract
a dynamical output controller, as shown in
Fig. 2b. The regulator transfer function is
related to the overall transfer function GE
by the following
G (18)
regulator (l-G ) G
E process
with G being in the form
regulator
-1 -n
a z + ... +anz
l
G (19)
regulator -1 -n
l+blz + ... +bnz
-1 .
with z represent~ng the backward shift ope-
rator and
n = l+degr. (Num.G, )+degr. (Den.G
" pro cess
)
(11)
SOFTWARE ORGANIZATION FOR
COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
The design procedure outlined in the previous
(12)
section consists of two main blocks: the
computation of output controll e r (19) and its
implementation on an on-line c omputer. The
former haq been organized as an interactive
package accepting the continuous-time proce ss
01 (13) description and the sampling interval to yield
regulator (19), wherres the latter consists of
a control program runnin g on a mi c r oc omputer.
The features of this tw o-step comp uter-aided
procedure are now described in details.
Computer Aided Design of LQI Contr ol Law.
An interactive package has been imp l ement e d
to be run off-line for the computation o f
regulator (19). Its block dia gram is sh own
in Fig. 3 and the functi on of ea ch bl ock is
now described.
MICROCONTROL . As the program is e nt e red, this
interactive module has control and promp ts
the user to enter the continuou-ti me pro cess
state description and the samplin g inte r val.
It also acts as a supervisor for all th e rest
of the package.
514
DISCRETD. Computes the equivalent discrete-
time state description of the or i ginal process
as follows, with 6 representing th e sampling
interval,
exp(M)
J~XP(AO)B do
o
The ma tri x exponential is evaluated using the
Cayley-Hamilton theorem as follows . Let f(A)
be a polinomial function of the ma tri x A. Di-
vid ing by the characteristic polynomial yields
f(9) Q(9)P(9) + R(9)
whe r e P is the characteristic polynomial of
A and R is a polynomial of degree n-l if n is
the dimension of A. Substituting in (22) A
in place of the dummy variable 9 and making
use of the Cayley- Hamilton theorem yields
2 n-l
f(A)=R(A)= r +r A+r A + .. +r _lA
o l 2 n (23)
The problem of computing the coefficients
r o ' ... , rn-l is solved by forming a system
substituting in (23) the eigenvalues of A.
In this case
where { Al" .. , An } are the eigenvalues of ma-
trix A. Eqs. (24) can now be solved for
r o ,· .. ,r n _ l ·
B6 is computed by numerical integration, using
Simpson algorithm .
LEVERRI ER. Evaluates the input- output transfer
function coefficients from a given realization
(A , B, C) as
G(s) = C(sI - A) - l B
The Leverrier algorithm is conceived as
G(s)
where pes) is the chacteristic polynomial of
A and the R's can be computed by the follow-
ing recursive scheme
1
k trace (A Rn - k + l )
with k 1, ... ,n
S. Marsili-Libelli
(28)
with t he doublecheck
(20) R = I . a 1
n ' n
RI CTD. solves the optimal control problem for
(21) the augmented system (13) iterating eqs . (16-
17), after the user has entered the appropri -
ate weighting matrix Q and p appearing in the
cost functional (14) and other run-time pa-
rameters controlling the iterative computa-
tion involved . As a result the optimal
asymptotic gains Fl and f2 are obtained .
DYNAMIC . Performs the extraction of the out-
put dynamic controller according to the
(22 )
scheme of Fig. 2b, eq. (19) , making use of
Leverrier algorithm. The output of this p r o-
gram segment are the coefficients a ' s and b's
that implement the optimal LQI control law
on the given c ontinuous-time process sampled
6 time units apart .
On-l ine Regulator Implementation.
Once the regulator transfer function (19) is
numerically specified, a simple microproces -
sor will suffice for control law implementa-
tion. Practical laboratory experimen ts have
been carried out as a conclusion of this two
step design procedure using an analog process
simulator and a microcomputer with analog/
digital interfaces as a controller. The hard-
ware details and the experimental results are
reported elsewhere (Marsili - Libelli and Tosi,
1978). ImplemerUtion of the control scheme to
(24)
the problem of aeration control is presen tl y
being afforded on a pilot plant.
snruLATION RESULTS
To assess the validity of this CAD approach ,
the continuous - discrete system comprising the
non-linear continuous - time process (1- 3) and
the linear discre te - time controller (19) has
been simulated on a digital computer.
An input s e quence for the organic pollutant
Si was synthetized availing of experimental
time series, exhibiting two daily peaks, as
shown in Fig. 4a . It may be considered as a
(25 )
rather severe input l oad, with large fluctua -
tions.
The no l evel in the ae rat or related to the
input of Fi g . 4a is sh own in Fig . 4b for the
(26 )
two arrangeme nts : with feedback control (so-
lid line) and with no control, i.e . constant
aeration (dotted line). It should be pointed
out that if constant ae r a tion is used , the
air supply is in ca pab l e t o secure an adequate
DO level, which r e duces to zero during the
peack loading hours . This situation would
lead in practice to p oor treatment efficien~
(27) and ultimately t o permanent plant failure if
prolonged oxygen shortage occurrs . Actually,
biological oxidation is known to be severely
impaired by a DO level somewhat below half
 Optimal Aeration Control for Wastewater Treatment 515

milligram per litre. An all too obvious solu-

tion would be to set a higher value for
constant airflow, so as to avoid oxygen
depletion, but this solution would lead to
undue energy expenditure and produce a too
high DO level in the intervals when the load
is milder, thus causing the sludge to bulk.
Instead, the closed loop control arrangement
secures a DO level fluctuating about the set-
point value, which was chosen of 2 mg/l. Even
during the peack load, DO level never falls
below 1.8 mg/l (at 4.5 hrs) nor exceeds 2 . 25
mg/l (at 20 hrs). The level of 2 mg/l was
considered high enough to support nitrifica-
tion and yet economically feasible and the
fluctuations occurring as the pe ack load
enters the plant are redu ced well within to-
lerable limits, thus sho~hin that the design
basec on linear approximation (4-9) is suf-
ficiently accurate over the oparating range.
As to the relative weight p appearing in (14),
a value of lxlO- 6 was selected after that si -
mulation with greater and smaller values
have shown a weaker control performance or
a too large energy expenditure respectively.
Fig. 4c shows how the air flow is readjusted
at each control interval (15 minutes) to
yield the staircase depicted. Notice also
that the airflow signal reprodu ces fairly
closely the input load , thus providing an
information otherwise unattainable by
direct means .
As a final comment to the simulation experi-
ments, it should be stressed how the only
observec variable is DO level, a quantity
that can be measured quite accurately and
inexpensively.
CONCLUSION
The problem of providing constant oxygen
level within the aeration unit of an activated
sludge wastewater treatment plant has been
solved using a CAD approach . A controller
which is optimal in the LQI sense has been
proposed and reduced into an easily implement
able form using an interactive CAD package -
with broader applicability than the particu-
lar applicati on des c ribed in this pa pe r.
REFERENCES
Aarinen, R., J. Tirkkonen and A. Halme (1978).
Experiences on Instrumentation and Control
of Activated Sludge Plants - a Microprocess
or Application. Proc. 7th IFAC World -
Congress, Helsinki, June 12-16, 1978,
pp. 255- 262 .
Andrews, J.F. (1977). Dynamic Models and
Control Steategies for Wastewater
Treatment Plants - an Overview. Proc.
IFAC Symposium on Environmental systems
Planning, Design and Control, H. Akashi
(Ed .), Pergamon Press, 1977.
Andrews, J.F. and G. Olsson (1977). Estima-
tion and Control of Biological Activity
in the Activated Sludge Process Using
Dissolved Oxygen Measurements . Proc.
IFAC Symposium on EnvironmentalSyStems
Planning, Design and Control, H. Akashi
(Ed . ), Pergamon Press, 1977. pp.745-756.
Kwakernaak, H. and R. Sivan (1972). Linear
Optimal Control Systems, J. Wiley, New
York .
Marsili-Libelli, S. (1979). Reduced-Order
Modelling for Activated Sludge Tre~tment
Process. Submitted to Ecological
Modelling Journal.
Marsili-Libelli, S., G. Fois and D. Morneschi
(1978). 110delling and Control of Activa-
ted Sludge Process . In G.C . Vansteenkiste
(Ed.) Modelling, Identification and
Control in Environmental Systems. North
Holland Publishing Co ., Amsterdam 1978.
pp. 805 - 812 .
Marsili-Libelli, S. and S. Tosi (1978).
Optimal Control Using Microprocessors .
Proc. MECO 78 Congress, Athens, June 23-
26, 1978. In press.
Olsson, G. (1975). Activated Sludge Dynamics
I: Biological Models. Report 7511(C),
Lund Institute of Technology, Dept. of
Automatic Control.
ILLUSTRATIONS

Simulation results lead to a positive conclu-

sion about the regulator feasibility and
implementability and pilot-plant scale
experiments are now under way.

ACKNOWLEDGEHENT

The author is indebted to the Local

Administrations of Florence and Modena for
allowing to carry out sampling and experiments
on their municipal wastewater treatment plants. Fig. 1. Activated Sludge
Also , Hoffman Industries ou ~ht to be thanked Treatment Plant.
for supplying valuable literature on air
blowers.
516 S. Marsili-Libelli

',"'1")
\
I
I
I
.--......o---f---'.

-
I
L
,-
I
I
\
\
\

\
I I
I 2
L _ _____ ______ ____ ___ .--J
regulator

Fig. 2a. Solution of the LQI Fig. 4a. Input organic load
control problem. used in the simulation.

.11'111111
- ---- _1.1 IIrIIIII
- - cHlnI... IIrIIIII
't /
I
I
/

2 - " ,
\
"
,,
,, I

,
,
,
\

\,
:
Fig. 2b. Equivalent output \ I
:
\ I
dynamical re gulator. \
O -r---~-
0
•
-
-. - -
'2 16 20

Fig. 4b. DO level in the

aerator.

- - ....... onlllo

5000

1_
O~O--'-----1~2--'~'--~
TIlE t_,)
~--2~'--2~~-~~~

Fi g . 3. Bl ock dia g ram structure Fig. 4c. Air f low input signal.
of CAD pa ckage .