OPTIMIZATION AND UPGRADING WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

Abstract

Aging of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) reduces their efficiency and their treated effluent quality while it increases standards of safety, health and environmental protection to preserve our quality of life. Therefore, upgrading and optimization out of date WWTPs is essential to meet new standards within an economically responsible and environmentally sustainable framework. This paper reviews the most common wastewater treatment processes and their constrains that could need for upgrading. Also, it establishes procedures for optimizing and upgrading existing WWTPS including systematic approaches to find out the capacity and performance of existing processes, to determine the places of constrains, to put alternatives for overcoming limitations and evaluating different alternatives and to select the most suitable and cost-effective for different kinds of processes. WWTPs in Alexandria and Damietta governorates, Egypt, have been studied for upgrading the existing situation and increase their treatment capabilities.