Synthesis and Optimisation of A Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Plant via Material Flow Cost Account (MFCA)-based Approach

Abstract

In this work, MFCA-based approach has been developed to synthesise an optimum wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). To develop the approach, a series of mathematical equations have been generated based on a generic superstructure that presented all possible pathways of WWTP. In this work, four continuous treatment stages (pre-treatment, chemical treatment, biological treatment and tertiary treatment) with various treatment technologies have been considered. In addition, raw material cost, energy cost, labour cost, and waste management cost as well as the hidden cost and carry-forward cost have also been considered in this approach. In this work, hidden cost is referred to the cost that associated with the process stream, while the carry-forward cost is referred to the cost that is carried forward from one process to another process. Furthermore, pollutants (e.g., TSS, COD, BOD and O&G) have also been considered to ensure the discharged water is complied with discharged regulations. To illustrate the developed approach, an industrial case study, has been solved. As results, an optimum sago wastewater treatment process with minimum waste generation cost is synthesised via a commercial optimisation software, LINGO.