Evaluation Protocols for the Optimization of Water Treatment Plants

In recent years, water treatment is becoming more important and in the future the number of water treatment plants (WTPs) is destined to increase. However, plants often operate less than optimally from a resource management point of view. This lack of efficiency in WTPs can lead to a drop in pollutants removal yields, an increase in operating costs as well as a waste of resources, in opposition to the concept of circular economy. In this work, a methodological approach useful to identify the critical treatment phases and evaluate the effectiveness of the diverse upgrade interventions has been proposed. Performance indicators useful for the characterization of the WTPs, after a preliminary monitoring phase, are presented. In addition, examples of functionality tests applied to real WTPs are shown.