Automated Chlorine Dosage in a Simulated Drinking Water Treatment Plant: A Real Case Study

Featured Application This research was applied in the Sant Joan Despi drinking water treatment plant in Barcelona city, providing drinking water to 1,900,000 inhabitants. The tool was validated with real data obtained in the plant in different conditions of effluents. Abstract In this paper, we present a simulator of a drinking water treatment plant. The model of the plant was based in hydraulic and matter transportation models. In order to not introduce more inaccuracies in the simulation, the control system was based in the real equipment deployed in the plant. This fact was the challenging part of the simulator, and an accurate design is presented in this research, wherein the sampling time had to be limited to interchange data between the SCADA in the plant and the simulator in real time. Due to the impossibility to stop the plant when testing the new control strategy, a simulator implemented the plant behavior under different extreme conditions. The validation of the simulator was performed with real data obtained from the plant.