Dynamic Performance Simulation and Treatment Alternatives Evaluation for Process Intensification for a Wastewater Treatment Plant in Toronto

Process intensification in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has become imperative to cope with the increasing amount of sewage, stricter environmental regulations, decreasing available footprint, and financial conditions. This study developed a plant-wide model for North Toronto Treatment Plant (NTTP) using BioWin. The model mimics NTTP’s performance under the current flow rate as well as plant rated capacity, and allows to take control actions to conserve the desired effluent quality. Documentation such as flows and lab data from online and offline sources was used to tune the BioWin model for the NTTP, and a series of steady state and dynamic simulations were run to calibrate and optimize the model. A four week sampling campaign, realized at the level of the primary effluent, allowed to overcome the sludge co-thickening modeling issue, and validate the steady state model with dynamic runs. Besides, State Point Analysis (SPA) was performed to examine the secondary clarifiers performance under current and future loading conditions. Five model configurations were implemented to the validated plant model and assessed to determine the optimized solution for plant upgrade to full treatment rated capacity, while keeping Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) objectives conformity, and process cost efficiency.