Automatic control of volatile fatty acids in anaerobic digestion using a fuzzy logic based approach

A control law based on fuzzy logic was developed and validated for an anaerobic wastewater treatment process. The controlled variable was the concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFA) in the reactor and the manipulated variable was the input flow rate. In order to use it as the input of the fuzzy sets, the controlled variable was treated using an algorithm of interpolation, extrapolation and filtering. The treatment of VFA values attempted to anticipate the behaviour of the variable and to avoid the inherent delay of the response, associated to the time constant of the system. Furthermore, the controlled variable derivative was used as a second input of the fuzzy sets to increase or decrease the speed of the control action. The control law was applied to a 0.948 m³ fixed-bed anaerobic reactor treating raw and diluted (1:2) industrial distillery vinasses. The validation was performed establishing different transient states between different set points in the range of 0.8 and 1.8 g VFA/l and different concentrations of the influent. The control law proved to be reliable supplying an adequate control action in terms of amplitude and velocity to achieve the desired set point for different types of perturbation and control purposes.