Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play a critical role in managing sewage before it is released into the environment. As regulations become more stringent, plants must adapt to these changes, making the development of innovative methodologies for optimizing WWTPs essential. This work provides an overview of how WWTP operation optimization can be conducted. First, the fundamental aspects of WWTP processes, modelling, and operation are presented, along with the basics of optimization problems. This article then explores the application of WWTP operation optimization within the literature, starting with the formulation of the problem, followed by the methods used for optimization. The interaction between optimization systems and the plant, as well as their degree of implementation, is examined. Finally, the current developments and the existing gaps to obtain more complete and applicable optimization systems are discussed.
Rodríguez-García et al. (Mon,) studied this question.