Process control and energy saving

Creapro® is an advanced control platform that manages and optimizes the treatment stages of a purification plant in real time based on a combination of mathematical models and advanced control logic that guarantee more effective system monitoring and directly measurable energy savings.

In fact, the plant manager is increasingly optimizing the process of his plant based on the analysis of online data rather than on the outcome of the analytical reports of the samples taken at strategic points of the purification process. The Creapro® platform was designed to analyze and process the online data provided by the sensors in the field, the offline data uploaded by the operator, all the information deriving from the measurements of flow rate, intensity, working time and frequency of all electromechanical equipment and translate them in the most useful process strategy to improve performance and consumption.

Creapro® platform

The Creapro® platform is the most complete and innovative tool designed to introduce artificial intelligence logic within a purification plant; it can be implemented with any existing communication protocol and in any system regardless of its size and complexity, in fact it operates as an intelligent control system that autonomously modifies the system management variables with the sole purpose of pursuing discharge limits imposed by law with the lowest possible energy consumption.

The platform is simply not able to learn from the online data field from the ammonia, nitrate, ORP, suspended solids, temperature and pH measurement probes as well as collect information relating to the flow rate and electrical absorption measurements of the main electromechanical components, but it can act as an interface for loading and processing off-line data, such as laboratory analyses, the evolution of the cost of electricity as a function of the period and scheduled maintenance operations on the various components. In this sense, the most common control logics implemented involve the blowers responsible for supplying the air for the biological process, the modulating valves for regulating the quantity of air sent to each drop of which the air distribution line is composed, the submersible pumps responsible for lifting incoming wastewater, internal recirculation of the aerated mixture, recirculation of sludge and overflow.

Internal combustion engines for the production of electricity from biogas, chemical product dosing sections and sections for the production of liquid oxygen from atmospheric air such as VPSA power plants can also be subjected to inspection.

The Creapro® platform is equipped with a customizable dashboard (control panel), thanks to which it is possible to always have the operating parameters deemed most interesting under control, both as specific data and in the form of a diagram. The data can be exported in the desired format and can be sent at pre-established intervals to the desired mailboxes: the control platform essentially automatically generates personalized reports on the operation of the system (for example, influent flow rates, effluent quality, energy consumption, operating conditions system, alarms and anomalies, particular events, etc.).

Controlled plant areas and activities

The CREA® platform is actually designed based on the characteristics of the system to be monitored and the needs of the manager. The control logics on which it bases its calculations range from classic mathematical models to the application of fuzzy logics, repetitive pattern recognition and automatic learning in the field of artificial intelligence. The control strategy implemented by the platform is based on adaptive and predictive feedback and feed-forward logics, which modify the behavior of the equipment in the field in order to obtain maximum reliability in terms of unloading performance with the lowest operational management costs.

Below we report the areas of the plant and the treatment stages that can be implemented in the platform and subjected to intelligent control.

Possible platform configurations

The possibility of customizing the CREA® platform according to the needs of the operator and the type of system translates into the creation of a unique suite expressly designed to meet the customer’s needs.

Depending on the degree of complexity of the system, the amount of data to be processed and the type of communication architecture that can be implemented in the field, we are able to offer up to 5 different CREA® platforms.

Each platform designed in this way can not only be easily implemented in the future by introducing new control logics without having to modify the hardware components, but it can also be easily modified according to any change in equipment in the plant such as, for example, modifications/introduction of new blowers /pumps etc., or as a replacement for measuring instruments in the field.

Main features:

• It guarantees discharge limits that are always under control with a high degree of reliability
• It can be installed against any existing communication protocol
• Reliable system installed in over 160 plants around the world with different technologies and schemes
• Possibility of being used for both small systems (500 m3/day) and large purification infrastructures (> 750.00 m3/day)
• It offers a high level of control dashboard customization
• Ability to customize alarms, send reports and graphs automatically
• Reduction in energy consumption by up to 50%
• Optimization of the electrical power used by up to 40%
• Up to 35% less chemical consumption
• Up to 10% reduction in sludge treatment costs