Efficient Development of 
Urban Water Services

Work Package: Operational Optimization of 
the Wastewater Treatment Plant Isfahan North

Challenges

Isfahan’s wastewater treatment plants are, in general, big enough to handle the accumulating wastewater. Like other wastewater treatment plants in Iran, however, they show various operational problems and due to that, poor water quality values.

Project Activities

This work package aims at improving the discharge quality of the Isfahan North wastewater treatment plant. To achieve this goal, three different approaches are possible: An upgrading of the current technology, the introduction of additional innovative technologies for wastewater treatment, or a mix of upgraded and new technologies. The most economic and ecologically reasonable strategy is assessed, taking into account manageability and availability of the technologies in Iran.

In order to estimate the impacts of technology upgrading on discharge quality, various measures are implemented and evaluated. Initial research revealed great need for action in the field of sludge treatment: to discharge the surplus sludge in a controlled way and to treat it properly afterwards. To do so, the sludge treatment section is equipped with measuring devices and put into operation. Operational staff will be trained with regards to correlation and interaction of the main parameters.

Another upgrade will be the installation and initial start-up of an automated aeration control. This will lead not only to optimized operation but also to a significant reduction in electric power consumption, which represents one of the goals identified by the German project team.

As innovative technology for wastewater treatment, the application of ultra-filtration facilities and wastewater screens is assessed. The aim is to purify the currently poorly treated wastewater in the test plant so that further disinfection with chlorine becomes unnecessary. The tests will reveal to what extent these technologies can be implemented and actually put into operation.

Expected Outcomes

At the end of the project, the operation of the treatment plant is expected to be optimized. By a comparison of the approaches and the economic analysis it will be observable which strategies prove to be most feasible from an ecological and economic perspective, and which can be transferred to other locations.

Contact

Christoph Sahlmann, p2m berlin, christoph.sahlmann@p2mberlin.de