Decision making in sewage sludge dewatering methods selection: AHP approach

Year 2022, Volume: 6 Issue: 1, 21 - 30, 29.06.2022

Gulizar Kurtoglu Akkaya

Abstract

It is a physical process in which the water content of the waste sludge generated after water treatment is reduced. Sludge with reduced water content can be easily processed and significantly reduces disposal costs. For this reason, when determining the sludge dewatering process in a wastewater treatment plant, it is necessary to choose low-cost methods suitable for the facility, providing high solids content. Equipment selection is an important issue. Improper equipment selection negatively affects the efficiency, production, precision and especially the cost of the facility. On the other hand, it can be easily done with multi-criteria decision-making methods in order to choose the best equipment among many alternatives. In this study, frequently used equipment in our country was evaluated by taking expert opinions. Subsequently, the methods used in sludge dewatering were evaluated by the well-known MCDA technique using an integrated approach using analytical hierarchy. Parameters specified in AHP were determined and weighted by taking the opinions of experts on the subject, and resolved in SuperDecision software, and the best sludge dewatering process was determined.

Keywords

AHP, Decision making, sewage sludge

References

• 1. T. Saaty, Fundamentals of Decision Making and Priority Theory with the Analytic Hierarchy Process, RWS Publications, Pittsburgh (1994) 2. T. Saaty, The Analytic Hierarchy Process. Planning, Priority Setting, Resource Allocation, RWS Publications, Pittsburgh (1996) 3. Saaty, T. L. (1980). The analytic hierarchy process. New York: McGraw-Hill.