ABOUT
Background
SARASWATI 2.0 will be building on the work conducted and results achieved in the FP7 EU India project SARASWATI (Supporting consolidation, replication and up-scaling of sustainable wastewater treatment and reuse technologies for India). This project had as first of its kind conducted a comprehensive documentation (around 1.500 plants) and evaluation of existing decentralized wastewater treatment plants in India (the results have been published eg in: Singh et al., 2015, Suneethi et al. 2015, Chatterjee, et al. 2016, Singh and Kazmi, 2017; Kamble et al., 2017, Singh et al., 2018 ). One of the main conclusions was that a large number of those plants can neither be considered a “best available technology” in terms of treatment efficiency nor in terms of costs (Starkl et al., 2018 ). In terms of organic (BOD and TSS) removal, only MBR (Membrane Bioreactors) were found to be capable of achieving the goal at that time (2015) as per the newly proposed strict Indian standards under “normal” pollution load conditions. Often, where existing plants met the Indian standards, very low influent pollution concentrations were observed, hence showing a low treatment efficiency. With respect to reuse of treated wastewater (TWW), the positive environmental impact of recycling was offset by its negative health impact. Even for TWW satisfying the legal water quality standards there remain considerable health risks from reuse for irrigation or toilet flushing.
Based on the experiences of SARASWATI, SARASWATI 2.0 will pilot possible candidates for “best available technologies” and conduct a comprehensive sustainability evaluation of those plants.
Overall Objective
The overall objective of SARASWATI 2.0 is to identify best available as well as affordable technologies for decentralized wastewater treatment with scope of resource/energy recovery and reuse in rural and urban areas of India.
The project also addresses the challenge of real time monitoring and automation. The previous SARASWATI project has shown that a number of decentralized wastewater treatment plants in India do not perform properly and that there are few plants that would meet the more stringent standards as those proposed by the Indian Government in 2015.
Specific Objectives
To achieve the aforementioned overall objective, SARASWATI 2.0 pursues the 5 following specific project objectives:
Piloting of candidates for best available technologies (BAT) for India
10 technologies with high potential for India have been identified building on the results of the previous SARASWATI project, other EU India projects and the experience of the project team. These innovative technologies will be piloted across India in seven Indian States.
Monitoring, experimental work, and performance assessment
A comprehensive monitoring regime will be conducted for 6-15 months for all piloted technologies, focusing on physical, chemical and microbial parameters relevant for performance assessment in the Indian context. This objective will further encompass experimental work such as varying operational parameters for optimization of pilot technologies. Expected outcomes include a comprehensive set of monitoring data and analysis of these data in view of the technology performance under different operating conditions ascertaining utility of these technology under certain defined environmental condition or in general.
Developing suitable automation and control strategies for operations
Robust control strategies for all piloted technologies as well as assessment of their limits of performance will be developed. Recommendations on which control strategies to use in which situations will be simultaneously elaborated. This specific objective also intends to implement and test advanced MPC control strategies for selected pilots to eventually recommend suitable strategies for all other piloted technologies.
Assessing overall sustainability and identifying best available technologies
A detailed assessment of the overall sustainability of the piloted technologies will be carried out to identify the best available technologies in the Indian context. Adequate planning of actions and proactive stakeholder involvement will be stressed during the implementation of the pilots.
Effective dissemination, communication and exploitation of project results
This objective will encompass various measures to disseminate, communicate and exploit the project results. Measurable outcomes include presentations at conferences, publications, videos, webinars, etc. This website is also among the actions part of this specific objective.