Automatic classification of water and wastewater

This automatic classification is based on the value of the coefficient contribution of the reference spectra used in the semi-deterministic method (see Chapter 2). The reference spectra are related to suspended solids, colloids, dissolved organic compounds, surfactants and nitrate. For the determination of the coefficient values, an important experiment has been carried out [17], The deconvolution procedure was applied, on one hand, to several raw or treated samples taken at the inlet and outlet of several hundreds of waste-water treatment plants of different types, and, on the other hand, to a lot of surface water samples polluted with treated wastewater discharges. Table 5 shows the coefficients of the reference spectra for some of these samples (the coefficient values correspond to samples without dilution). The interpretation of the coefficients can lead to a rapid characterisation of the effluent type (inlet or outlet) and of the treatment plant type (chemical, biological, etc.). 

Raw wastewater is characterised by high values of the first three coefficients (corresponding to suspended, colloidal and dissolved matter). The sum of coefficients is also 

From the coefficient values, a generalisation can be proposed for the classification of wastewater (Fig. 32). This classification is based both on the value of the sum of the coefficients, excluding the fourth one corresponding to nitrate, and on the magnitude of the first (TSS) and fourth (nitrate) coefficients. This method can be applied in order to show the presence of anthropogenic organic compounds in natural water or to check the efficiency of a chemical or biological treatment. 

Vaillant, Organic Matter of Urban Wastewater Characterisation and Evolution. PhD thesis, Universite de Pau et des Pays de I Adour, France (2000). 

Wastewater Treatment Plants Planning, Design and Operation, Technomic Publishing Co, Inc, Lancaster, Basel, 1994. 

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