Biofilter with fuzzy logic control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10010830-B2
Application number	US-201715407050-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 16, 2017
Priority date	Oct 25, 2013
Publication date	Jul 3, 2018
Grant date	Jul 3, 2018

Abstract

A system for removing undesirable compounds from contaminated air includes a biofilter having a fuzzy logic based controller. A contaminant, such as hydrogen sulfide, is removed from contaminated air by passing the contaminated air through the biofilter.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A controller for a biofiltration system, the controller being configured to:
receive a first input signal from a measurement device in the biofiltration system corresponding to a first measured value of an input parameter of the biofiltration system;
calculate a first error value, the first error value being a first difference between the first input signal and a pre-determined set point for the input parameter;
receive a second input signal from the measurement device in the biofiltration system later in time from the receipt of the first input signal, the second input signal corresponding to a second measured value of the input parameter;
calculate a second error value, the second error value being a second difference between the second input signal and the pre-determined set point for the input parameter;
calculate an error-dot value, the error-dot value being the difference between the second error value and the first error value divided by a time interval between the first measured value and the second measured value;
determine a first degree of membership of the second error value in each of a plurality of error sets, wherein the first degree of membership is based on the second error value and a pre-determined error range;
determine a second degree of membership of the error-dot value in each of a plurality of error-dot sets, wherein the second degree of membership is based on the error-dot value and a pre-determined error-dot range;
determine an output control value based on a weighted average of one or more output set constants, each of the output set constants associated with an output set, a weighting of the output set constants based on the first degree of membership of the second error value in each of the plurality of error sets, the second degree of membership of the error-dot value in each of the plurality of error-dot sets, and a pre-determined rule set of conditional statements associating each output set with at least one of an error set and an error-dot set; and
generate a control signal based on the output control value which regulates an output parameter of the biofiltration system.

2. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the output parameter comprises a rate of introduction of a make-up water to the biofiltration system.

3. The controller of claim 2 , wherein the control signal controls a valve regulating a rate of introduction of make-up water to the biofiltration system.

4. The controller of claim 3 , wherein the input parameter is a pH value of a treatment water effluent.

5. The controller of claim 4 , wherein the measurement device is a pH sensor.

6. The controller of claim 3 , wherein the input parameter is a hydrogen sulfide concentration at a contaminated air inlet of the biofiltration system.

7. The controller of claim 3 , wherein the input parameter is a hydrogen sulfide concentration at a treated air outlet of the biofiltration system.

8. The controller of claim 7 , wherein the control signal controls a blower regulating a rate of air flow through the biofiltration system.

9. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the output parameter comprises a rate of air flow through the biofiltration system.

10. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the input parameter is a nutrient concentration of a treatment water effluent.

11. A wastewater treatment system comprising:
a contaminated air inlet in fluid communication with a treated air outlet;
a media bed in fluid communication with and positioned between the contaminated air inlet and the treated air outlet;
a sump configured and arranged to receive an effluent from the media bed;
an effluent outlet in fluid communication with the sump;
a source of make-up water at least periodically in fluid communication with the biofilter; and
a control system including:
a pH sensor configured and arranged to measure a pH of the effluent;
a controller actuated valve positioned between the source of make-up water and the biofilter; and
a fuzzy logic controller in communication with the pH sensor and the controller actuated valve and configured to provide an output signal to the controller actuated valve to regulate a rate of supply of make-up water to the biofilter in response to a plurality of input signals received from the pH sensor indicative of a pH of the effluent; and
a liquid mixture inlet in fluid communication with the media bed.

12. The wastewater treatment system of claim 11 , wherein the pH sensor is positioned in one of the sump and the recycle flow line.

13. The wastewater treatment system of claim 11 , further comprising a drain outlet in fluid communication with the sump.

14. The wastewater treatment system of claim 13 , wherein the pH sensor is positioned in the drain outlet.

15. A method of improving the performance of an odor mitigation biofilter, the method comprising:
replacing a manually operated make-up water flow control system of the biofilter with a fuzzy logic based control system configured to regulate flow of make-up water into the biofilter based upon one or more measured parameters of the biofilter, the replacement of the manually controlled make-up water flow control system with the fuzzy logic based control system causing a reduced range of fluctuation of pH within the biofilter over time and a reduced consumption of make-up water by the biofilter.

Assignees

• Evoqua Water Tech Llc

Inventors

• Matheis Timothy Frank
• Hansen Eric C
• Zhang Yunjie

Classifications

• C02F2101/101

  Sulfur compounds · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• G05B2219/40585

  Chemical, biological sensors · CPC title

• C02F3/345

  for biological oxidation or reduction of sulfur compounds · CPC title

• B01D53/84 Primary

  Biological processes · CPC title