The Difficulties of Designing Technical-Economic Models for Czech Wastewater Treatment Plants

Abstract

This paper describes the main points that must be faced when preparing a methodology for a techno-economic model of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The model and the design are meant to be applied to real WWTP technologies in the Czech Republic. Most of Czech WWTPs combine mechanical and biological processes to treat wastewater. The main waste product of all wastewater treatment processes is sewage sludge (SS), which is typically a semiliquid mixture of organic and inorganic substances. The paper summarises the basic research on the WWTP models, presents the basic structure of the techno-economic model and describes the basic input data sets, which are crucial for the analysis of real WWTPs. The aim is to propose the structure and design of a techno-economic model that will be sufficiently variable and can evaluate the mechanical equipment of the WWTP together with the variable composition of wastewater.