New project! DT-N2O – Quantifying and minimising nitrous oxide emissions at wastewater treatment plants with digital twins

The project will build a digital twin, an automated process model, for the Käppala Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Stockholm. The twin is used to quantify and minimise greenhouse gas emissions (mainly nitrous oxide).

The project leader is industrial PhD student Christoffer Wärff at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. He will conduct the project in collaboration with Käppalaförbundet, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Lund University and Gemit Solutions. The project has been granted funding from Smart Built Environment.

A digital twin is a process model of the wastewater treatment plant where data collection and simulation are automated to run regularly (e.g. once per hour). This allows regular process optimisation to minimise nitrous oxide emissions. It also enables estimation of emissions from other points in the treatment plant than those measured by sensors. The project will develop such a digital twin for Käppala WWTP in Lidingö, Stockholm, and evaluate its effectiveness in predicting and minimising greenhouse gas emissions. They will include both direct emissions of nitrous oxide and indirect emissions from chemical and energy use in the optimisation.

Read more about the project here.