Reduction of an activated sludge process model to facilitate controller tuning

Activated sludge process, modelling, model reduction, controller tuning SUMMARY The aim of this paper is to present a reduced model of an industrial activated sludge process which can be used for controller tuning. A reduced model was required because use of the full model is time consuming and computer intensive. The resulting model decreased simulation time by a factor of 3. Evaluation of the reduced model showed that it gives a good approximation of the full model, however, at intermediate influent concentrations of free ortho-phosphate the performance is lower. This did not significantly affect the controller tuning. Therefore, this simple model reduction is an effective tool for tuning the controller