The development of aCurve: a rich internet application for process analysis at Käppala WWTP

The Käppala WWTP is a conventional activated sludge plant situated underground with eleven parallel treatment trains. Wastewater is treated in preliminary, primary, secondary and tertiary treatment steps and achieves a high removal rate of nitrogen (80%), phosphorous (98%) and BOD₇ (99%). The nitrogen removal is performed with preanoxic denitrification. Phosphorous is removed by addition of ferrous sulphate in the secondary treatment or with enhanced biological phosphorous removal according to a University of Cape Town configuration (Tchobanoglous et al. 2004). Tertiary treatment is accomplished with 30 dual media down-stream sand filters. Ferrous sulphate is added as precipitant. Primary and waste activated sludge is digested anaerobically in two digesters and the produced biosolids are used for agriculture. All biogas is upgraded to vehicle fuel quality and used in buses for public transport. For further information about Käppala WWTP see www.kappala.se.

The accredited laboratory at Käppala WWTP enables the association to report the treatment results directly to the regulatory authorities, e.g. the county administrative board, and also this data is transferred to the same database via a Laboratory Information Manager System.

The quick DCS is enough for the operators to run the plant efficiently since no extra handling of the data is normally required. But as soon as some kind of calculation is needed the DCS is insufficient and data must be transferred to some other application.

A large number of people need access to the data in the PGIM database for different reasons and in different ways. Process engineers need to be able to access large number of both laboratory and process data rapidly for plotting and to perform simple calculations for process follow up. Sometimes more advanced calculations are needed by process engineers, students scientists or consultants in different research projects. A large number of infrequent users are interested in easy access to different kinds of compressed or ready to use data (e.g. staff outside the operations unit, summary reports for managers or for information to the public). For an application to meet these demands the following specifications must be met;

• (i) Rapid presentation of large number of data from both laboratory analysis and on-line process data in graphs. Graphical features such as zoom functions, changing resolution, hiding and showing graphs, changing scale etc. is required.

• (ii) The ability to perform simple calculations (e.g. addition, subtraction, multiplication) rapidly and presenting the results in new graphs.

• (iii) Statistical operations. Simple statistics should be presented easily, advanced calculations can be performed in other programs.

• (iv) The possibility to export data to other programs.

• (v) The ability to build reports that are automatically updated.

• (vi) Simplicity. The application must be easy to use, for infrequent users a too advanced program will not be used.

• (vii) Cost effective. For many and infrequent users to be possible, installation and maintenance costs must be low.

The existing market, between the years 2005 and 2010, could not produce a program with the above specifications. Many advanced statistical programs were available on the market but the complexity and costs were too large to meet the demands for low simplicity and cost effectiveness, i.e. the number of users would be limited to a few experts. As a result the Käppala Association decided to build a new program with help of Gemit Solutions according to the above specifications.

The main idea of agile methods is that all development should take place in a close cooperation with the client (Beck et al. 2001, Dingsøyr et al. 2010). This cooperation is carried out with frequent meetings between system developers and end users. The development should be incremental and iterative meaning that new releases will be frequent. The product is constantly evaluated with respect to new functions and new ideas can easily be implemented and old ideas rejected if needed. This process enables the programmer to constantly be updated with what the user wants and to create a desirable product.

There are several advantages to use a RIA instead of a traditional desktop application. At first there is no need to install any other software framework on the client. The second advantage is that an upgrade of the software is done simply by updating files on the server, which will affect all users simultaneously. An unlimited number of users can use the RIA and the maintenance cost is a fraction of that of a desktop application.

Thanks to an agile system development approach the RIA aCurve has been developed to meet the needs of many different profiles in the organization at the Käppala WWTP. An unlimited number of users can access the data in the PGIM server thanks to the web based approach. The maintenance costs are negligible compared to traditional desktop applications. Engineers, scientists, and operators can use the application on any device for rapid presentation of graphs and statistics or export data to other programs if advanced calculations are acquired. Automatic reports can easily be built in Microsoft Excel and provides staff outside the operation unit to follow up process performance. The data assurance procedure for reporting to authorities has since the implementation of aCurve improved thanks to the accessibility of data and reports.