Integrated Cost Functions for Biological Treatment by Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor in Wastewater Treatment Plant

This paper presents the methodology for the determination of integrated cost functions to estimate the forecast level cost for biological treatment of wastewater by use of Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor–one of the space-saving wastewater treatment options for improvement of local infrastructure. The cost functions developed are useful for inflows over a broad range and have been derived based on process design and cost estimation but not on collection of historic cost data. The same have been validated by the determination of mean absolute percentage error. Cost function equations for small and large capacities are noted to be best expressed by polynomial equations. Cost function equation for medium capacities is best expressed by linear equation. The values of determination coefficient R2 of the cost functions for small, medium and large capacities are 0.9968, 0.9988 and 0.9988, respectively. The respective values of mean absolute percentage errors with reference to cost functions for small, medium and large capacities are 1.35