At the beginning of September, a several-day measurement campaign was carried out under the WP5 Model-based evaluation and life cycle assessment (LCA) of the integrated system for resource recovery of our SIREN project. The campaign took place at the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant for the Poznań agglomeration (COŚ) in Koziegłowy. The aim of the campaign was collecting data for validation of the computer model of the wastewater treatment plant. The research involved teams from Gdańsk University of Technology (GUT), Aquanet S.A. (AQ) and Poznań University of Technology (PUT). The works were led by Dr. Eng. Ewa Zaborowska from Gdańsk University of Technology. The campaign was carried out in a system of two twelve-hour shifts: day and night. The research began on September 1., 2021 with a joint on-site visit to perform an inspection of the sampling points and to discuss the distribution of tasks in the team. During the next 4 days (September 2 – 6, 2021), the tests lasted 24 hours a day.
A number of wastewater, sludge and leachate sampling points were selected:
- 6 sampling points with samples collected every 2 hours by the team members
- 2 sampling points with samples collected every 2 hours by autosampler
- 7 sampling points with samples collected once a day
as well as two field laboratories LAB P1 and LAB P2, called by the team “a hut”, where some of the laboratory tests were carried out. These tests included samples of wastewater and samples collected from the bioreactor. The other tests were performed by the Aquanet laboratory. The team also had at its disposal rooms called the Command and Relaxation Center, where, apart from meetings and work on current results, one could rest and relax between consecutive sampling sessions.
During the tests, among others, the following parameters were analysed in the laboratories: total suspended solids (TSS), volatile suspended solids (VSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and its soluble fraction (sCOD), total nitrogen (TN), Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), ammonium nitrogen (N-NH4), nitrates (N-NO3), nitrites (N-NO2), total phosphorus (TP) and phosphates (P-PO4). During the campaign, the continuous measurements of greenhouse gas emissions from the bioreactor were also carried out using an FT-IR gas analyzer.
The 4-day measurement campaign was complemented by two series of laboratory tests aimed at calibration of the computer model of the wastewater treatment plant. The first series of tests; preceding the campaign; took place on August 17 – 20, 2021, while the second series took place a week after the end of the campaign, September 14 – 17, 2021. The tests were chaired by Dr. Eng. Dominika Sobotka from Gdańsk University of Technology. During the research, tests were carried out in two batch reactors, including nitrification and denitrification as well as phosphorus release and uptake in one and two-phase variants, as well as simultaneous tests. During the tests, the collected samples were analyzed for COD, nitrogen compounds and phosphorus compounds.
