Christian Antileo

Sliding mode control of dissolved oxygen in an integrated nitrogen removal process in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR).

This paper presents a sliding mode controller (SMC) for dissolved oxygen (DO) in an integrated nitrogen removal process carried out in a suspended biomass sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The SMC performance was compared against an auto-tuning PI controller with parameters adjusted at the beginning of the batch cycle. A method for cancelling the slow DO sensor dynamics was implemented by using a first order model of the sensor. Tests in a lab-scale reactor showed that the SMC offers a better disturbance rejection capability than the auto-tuning PI controller, furthermore providing reasonable performance in a wide range of operation. Thus, SMC becomes an effective robust nonlinear tool to the DO control in this process, being also simple from a computational point of view, allowing its implementation in devices such as industrial programmable logic controllers (PLCs).

Advanced strategies to improve nitrification process in sequencing batch reactors - A review

The optimization of biological nitrogen removal (BNR) in sequencing batch reactors has become the aim of researchers worldwide in order to increase efficiency and reduce energy and operating costs. This research has focused on the nitrification phase as the limiting reaction rate of BNR. This paper analyzes different strategies and discusses different tools such as: factors for achieving partial nitrification, real-time control and monitoring for detecting characteristic patterns of nitrification/denitrification as end-points, use of modeling based on activated sludge models, and the use of data-driven modeling for estimating variables that cannot be easily measured experimentally or online. The discussion of this paper highlight the properties and scope of each of these strategies, as well as their advantages and disadvantages, which can be integrated into future works using these strategies according to legal and economic restrictions for a more stable and efficient BNR process in the long-term.