Modeling and optimization of a municipal treatment plant using EnviroPro Designer

The increasingly stringent environmental regulations on discharge standards have rendered the optimal design and operation of industrial and municipal treatment plants a challenging tasks. The new regulations require tracking and control of VOCs and beauty metals if such chemicals are present in the influent stream. Further, they require more effective removal of nutrients (organic nitrogen, and phosphorus). To address the above issues at our facility, EnviroPro Designer, a comprehensive environmental simulator from Intelligen, Inc., was used to model and analyze our wastewater treatment plant. The work was performed in two phases. In phase one, we developed and validated a model of the existing facility. In phase two, we carried out sensitivity analysis and evaluated a number of process modification scenarios. This paper will describe the findings of our modeling work and our experience from using EnviroPro Designer.