Optimal location of chlorine booster stations in an urban water distribution network

Abstract

Conventionally, sufficient amount of chlorine dosage is added into finished water just before it leaves the water treatment plant, so as to maintain a minimum residual disinfectant concentration even at the farthest demand nodes of the distribution network. Problems associated with this practice include : (1) elevated level of disinfectants that can adversely affect human health, (2) negative economic impacts due to chemical over-dosing, (3) elevated levels of carcinogenic disinfection by products (DBFs), and (4) taste and odour problems. An alternative to this practice is to place chlorine booster stations at minimal strategic locations in the distribution system to limit the dosage of chemical at the treatment plant but maintain sufficient residuals at the farthest nodes of the network. The present study presents a methodology based on linear and mixed integer programming techniques for identifying locations and number of chlorine booster stations to minimise both number of stations and chlorine dosage.