© WRc plc 2012

Treatment software –WRc’s STOAT and

Techneau’s SimEau

© WRc plc 2012

About WRc plc• WRc plc

• Innovative water, waste and environmental consultancy• 85 years experience working internationally• Mainly staff owned – Independent• Quality work with clients to improve the environment

• Vision• Delivering results from research

• People• 120+ professional staff• Based in Swindon• Testing facilities in Oakdale

© WRc plc 2012

Wastewater & WasteThe Waste team provides consultancy and research services tosupport water industry, regulators, government and technologydevelopers. We offer practical and innovative solutions to meetthe challenges our clients face in sustainably managingwastewater networks whilst protecting the environment. Ourservices include:• Wastewater and Sludge Treatment• Resource Management• Sewerage Operations• Carbon Accounting• Energy Efficiency• Odour Management• Technology Development and Instrumentation

© WRc plc 2012

Free and open-source wastewater software• Open source

• Full access to source code• Not necessarily free

• But all examples I can think of are free

• SeTS – runs under Scilab• Discontinued; no longer readily found on web

• Modelica wastewater library• Neither developed past initial code• BUT … include activated sludge

• Modelling workhorse

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Commercial packages

• ‘Open source’ claimed• Support for customisation

• BUT usually to add new reaction schemes• NOT completely new treatment types

• Encourage models to be incompletely described in open literature

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Free software

• STOAT – wastewater treatment• SimEau – drinking water treatment• NOT open source

• Source code not readily available• Some unit process models provided as examples with Techneau;

source code held by WRc and TU Delft• (Third-party spreadsheet & graphing components)

• New process models can be added with no constraints• SimEau – contains example code for adding new model• STOAT – documentation contains example code for

adding new model

© WRc plc 2012

STOAT – What can it bring?• Free – no barrier to acquisition to explore potential

benefits of modelling• Validated – ‘ring tests’ for ASM1• Most major sewage treatment processes• Support available through Linked-In user forum• Still being developed

• Driven by WRc’s own commercial needs• Support for larger-scale models

• DHI’s ICS COM-based interface• OpenMI 1.0 COM & .NET interface

• User models can be added

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Standard-style user interface

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STOAT take-up

• Type Text Here• Type Text Here

• Type Text Here• Type Text Here

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Africa

• Major area is Republic of South Africa• Then North Africa, West Africa, East

Africa• No registrations reported for much of

Africa• Interest small compared to Europe

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SimEau

• Developed as part of the EU Fifth Framework project, Techneau

• Cooperative sub-project between WRc and TU Delft• To replace WRc’s OTTER & TU Delft’s

Stimela• Open framework designed to simplify

adding new water treatment process models

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Standard GUI system

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Processes • Largely reflect Stimela/Dutch use

• Rapid gravity filter, Pellet softening• GAC, Ozonation, pH adjustment

• Limited OTTER/UK support• Chlorination, Coagulation

• More use as an academic than an engineering tool

• Designed to be (relatively) easy to add new processes

© WRc plc 2012

WRc’s hopes for HOPE• Better provision for cost-effective clean

water and wastewater treatment• Availability of modelling tools to allow

improvements in provision• SimEau – taken over by African

engineers to provide appropriate water treatment process models for Africa

• STOAT – better support for African treatment systems

• Open user-added models for new treatment systems

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• Move away from large sewered networks• Decentralised treatment

• Local nutrient re-use

• Bulk water supply of low quality• Local treatment to bring to drinking water standard• Don’t treat to high standards water for non-drinking

use

UK ‘50 year vision’

© WRc plc 2012

Wastewater provision in Africa

• Much better on water

• Wastewater provision low

• How will Africa develop?

• Sewered or decentralised?

© WRc plc 2012

Concerns and recommendations• Use STOAT and SimEau (!)

• Free, good spread of processes, ‘easy to use’• What water and wastewater treatment processes are

being considered for use in Africa?• May need to be broken down by region

• Will it follow ‘classical’ processes?• Large-scale sewered system• Activated sludge

• What new processes should be included?• ‘Low tech’ in Europe is reed beds

• Applicable in malarial areas?• UASB systems as an alternative