Prioritization of Wastewater Treatment Options in Rural Areas in Various Conditions According to Two Scientific and Executive Perspectives

• Published in: Āb va fāz̤ilāb : majallah-i ʻilmī, pizhūhishī Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 57 - 71
• Main Authors: Behnaz Karimpour, Ali Dehnavi, Shervin Jamshidi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Water and Wastewater Consulting Engineers Research Development 01-08-2023
• Subjects: multi-criteria decision-making; taguchi method; wastewater treatment options; wastewater treatment plant
• ISSN: 1024-5936; 2383-0905
• DOI: 10.22093/wwj.2023.367693.3299

Nowadays, the importance of ensuring the effluent standards of wastewater treatment plants is obvious. It is necessary to pay attention to the selection of the biological wastewater treatment process by considering different and diverse criteria. Because, the incorrect choice of the process increases costs and does not achieve the desired result. In this research, the technique of analytical hierarchy process and its combination with Taguchi method was used. By weighting and prioritizing the criteria and options by two groups of experts, including the scientific group and the executive group, the weight of each criterion and option was calculated. In the present study, options (in two cases including 7 conventional options and 7 advanced options), criteria (4 items) and comprehensive and complete sub-criteria (13 items) for selecting biological wastewater treatment processes in rural areas under various conditions have been considered. Finally, it was concluded that in both perspectives, the sub-criteria of providing disposal criteria and standards and the ability to reuse wastewater and climatic conditions were placed in the first and second priority. These sub-criteria received weights of 0.113 and 0.108 from the scientific point of view and 0.122 and 0.106 from the executive point of view. Also, the present study showed that the model of combining AHP and Taguchi method is a successful model for determining the method of biological wastewater treatment for various conditions. Finally, according to the results of this study, the prioritization of biological wastewater treatment options for wastewater treatment in Ahar village was done as a case study and the output results showed that the first priority of all experts is the artificial wetland method and MBBR, from a scientific point of view, Extended Aeration and ABR-Wetland, and in the executive point of view, artificial wetland and A2O methods were prioritized (conventional and advanced methods, respectively).