Innovative Norwegian Technology from Guard Automation Optimizes Wastewater Treatment

Thousands of litres of wastewater are treated at the facility every hour, explains Roger Engen, Head of Water and Wastewater at Modum Municipality.

The wastewater passes through a series of treatment processes before the treated water is discharged back into the environment. The objective is to remove environmentally harmful substances and ensure that the water released is as clean as possible.

”To achieve this, we use significant quantities of chemicals to remove pollutants such as phosphorus,” Engen explains.

”But how much chemical treatment is actually needed at any given moment? That is a challenge we have been working to solve for several years, and we are now ready to introduce the solution to municipalities across Norway,” says Jon Egil Ek at Guard Automation.

Guard Automation specialises in industrial automation and system integration, providing systems and services related to critical infrastructure to nearly 40% of Norwegian municipalities.

Jon Egil Ek, Guard Automation

Cleaner Water with Fewer Chemicals

According to Ek, factors such as snowmelt, precipitation and time of day have a significant influence on the amount of chemicals required during treatment. One of the key variables is infiltration and inflow (I&I), commonly referred to as foreign water in Norwegian wastewater management.

”Our new solution, Guard Treat Smart, is based on a predictive model that accounts for the proportion of foreign water entering a treatment plant to optimise chemical dosing. During periods of heavy rainfall or snowmelt, the proportion of foreign water increases, reducing the concentration of pollutants in the incoming wastewater. Under these conditions, less chemicals are required,” he explains.

Preliminary results from the Elvika treatment plant in Modum indicate that the technology has improved treatment performance while reducing chemical consumption.

”The pilot has demonstrated improved treatment efficiency over time, alongside a reduction in chemical consumption of approximately 20%. We expect further improvements as the model continues to learn from new operational data,” says Ek.

Roger Engen confirms the positive results.

”The new solution gives us cleaner water while using fewer chemicals. It also saves us money, and the technology has made the plant easier to operate,” he says.

Until now, chemical dosing has largely been a manual process.

”It has essentially been a matter of educated guesswork. With new technology, we can clearly do this more precisely. For example, the treatment plant is not staffed during weekends,” Engen explains.

He adds that the municipality spends several hundred thousand Norwegian kroner on treatment chemicals every year.

THE RESULT: Roger Engen at the Elvika wastewater treatment plant in Modum demonstrates the clean water produced at the end of the treatment process.

Better-Informed Decisions

Beyond optimising chemical dosing, the technology provides valuable insight into wastewater composition, pH levels and hydraulic retention time within the treatment plant.

”Continuous measurements of the proportion of foreign water can be used to analyse changes in the condition of the sewer network over time, evaluate the impact of improvement measures and, importantly, provide a basis for deciding whether investments should be directed towards expanding treatment capacity or upgrading the sewer network,” Ek explains.

Together, these insights provide a stronger foundation for ensuring that wastewater treatment plants operate in accordance with applicable regulations and performance requirements.

And importantly, this can be achieved without installing additional sensors.

Extensive Development Through Virtual Testing

Guard Automation began developing the solution in October 2021.

The development process drew on empirical data from a broad selection of wastewater treatment plants across Norway. Advanced data analyses were conducted to identify relationships between operational process variables and external influences, including meteorological, hydrological and demographic data, as well as time, location and seasonal variations.

Based on these analyses, Guard developed a cloud-based, adaptive model for operational optimisation.

”Virtual testing has played an important role in developing and validating the technology. We collected real operational data from ten different wastewater treatment plants, each with its own characteristics, and ran the technology in shadow mode,” Ek explains.

Shadow mode allows the model to calculate how it would have controlled chemical dosing without actually making changes to the treatment process.

”This allowed us to evaluate the model's performance under real operating conditions without interfering with plant operations. The tests provided valuable insight and demonstrated the potential to significantly reduce chemical consumption,” he continues.

Ek believes the technology could have a considerable impact on how wastewater treatment plants are operated throughout Norway.

”The solution simplifies operations, reduces costs and lowers environmental impact through reduced chemical consumption and improved treatment efficiency. It represents a fundamental change in how wastewater treatment plants can be operated in Norway,” concludes Jon Egil Ek at Guard Automation.