Low-cost systems for monitoring and control of agro-industrial wastewater treatment

Abstract

Nowadays, many agroindustries face several challenges in the treatment of their wastewater, essentially due to the temporal variability of their activity. This fact means that there is a need to adapt the treatment system to fluctuations in the quality and quantity of wastewater produced, which is often neglected due to the high cost of the currently existing automation systems. Access to low-cost monitoring and automation solutions, which can help small and medium-sized companies in the treatment of their wastewater, is therefore extremely important in the sustainability of their activity. Due to technological advances, there is currently widespread access to sensors and controllers at a reduced cost, which already have a reliability and quality that may assist industries in the treatment of their wastewater, through continuous monitoring of the main parameters that influence treatment. The use of low-cost IoT (Internet of Things) solutions is now a new way of increasing the efficiency of existing treatment systems and reducing the associated environmental impacts. Within the scope of this work, a prototype of a low-cost monitoring and control system was developed, which intends to validate the usefulness and functionality of the proposed system. This system makes it possible to monitor and adjust the treatment intensity, in order to guarantee the quality of the treated effluent, adapting the treatment to the existing conditions, and being able to issue alerts in case of identification of failure/anomaly in the system. The ability to adapt the treatment also ensures the quality of the treated wastewater according to its destination, whether for later use, discharge into a municipal collector or for discharge into a natural receiving environment.