Process Safety and Environmental Protection 172 (2023) 501–512

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Process Safety and Environmental Protection

journal homepage: www.journals.elsevier.com/process-safety-and-environmental-protection

Transforming data into actionable knowledge for fault detection, diagnosis

and prognosis in urban wastewater systems with AI techniques: A
mini-review
Yiqi Liu a, b, *, Pedram Ramin b, Xavier Flores-Alsina b, Krist V. Gernaey b
a
The Key Laboratory of Autonomous Systems and Networked Control, Ministry of Education, School of Automation Science & Engineering, South China University of
Technology 510641, Guangdong, China
b
Process and Systems Engineering Center (PROSYS), Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Building 228 A, 2800
Kgs., Lyngby, Denmark

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics (DA) could provide opportunities for the fault
Fault detection management and the decision-making of the urban wastewater treatment systems (UWS) operations. The UWS is
Fault diagnosis typically a large system, including Sewer networks (SNs), Wastewater Treatment plants (WWTPs) and also
Fault prognosis
considering the Receiving media (RM). However, applications of AI and DA in the UWS can be challenging due to
Data analytics
Artificial intelligence
the complexities and size of systems, the large variation in the level of UWS instrumentation, and the relatively
poor data quality. This review goes beyond the state of the art by critically analyzing previous work on AI-based
data-driven methodologies to system-wide fault detection, life cycle fault management and transformation of big
and small data into analytics, particularly, considering two different points of view: process faults (such as
bulking sludge, sewer corrosion & technology specifics) and instrumentation faults (such as sensors and actua­
tors), thereby offering more opportunities to distinguish complex patterns and dynamics. Our analysis reveals the
relative strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches to design fault diagnosis tools and to apply these in
the UWS. Finally, the opportunities and challenges about the inter-play among UWS, data and AI are discussed.

1. Introduction
With the wake of industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data
analytics (DA) in the past decades, wastewater treatment processes have
been redefined as smart facilities being operated partially or fully
automatically (Olsson, 2012a). To maintain a desired and safe perfor­
mance, a large number of sensors and automation systems are equipped
to collect process data as well as to monitor and discover abnormalities
with respect to process or instrumentation states in an urban wastewater
system (UWS) (Russo et al., 2021, 2020; Kazemi et al., 2020; Rosen
et al., 2004). Depending on the collected data and monitoring system
states, intelligent fault management is able to provide better operational
safety of the UWS, which is viewed as a set of activities: fault detection,
diagnosis, prognosis and maintenance.
Even though many fault detection algorithms were developed and
implemented in other fields such as process engineering, they are not
easily adoptable for the UWS. This is mainly due to the stochasticity /
uncertainty of the combination of biological, physical and chemical
reactions in the UWS, such as variation of temperatures across each year,
and occurrence of extreme weather conditions (Nor et al., 2020; Park
et al., 2020; Teh et al., 2020). A wastewater treatment system (WWTS) is
composed of interconnected sewer networks (SNs) and Wastewater
Treatment Plants (WWTPs). SNs are purposely used to collect and
convey wastewater from households and industry. The collected
wastewater will then be delivered to wastewater treatment plants
(WWTPs) and finally cleaned wastewater enters into the receiving media
(RM) (Fig. 1) (Olsson, 2012b). Although WWTSs have already reached a
significant degree of maturity, faults in SNs or WWTPs will lead to un­
desirable performance in specific parts of the process, which can prop­
agate through their entire structure. Development and implementation
of automatic and intelligent detection of faults (Fault detection), iden­
tifying rooting causality (Fault diagnosis) and predicting fault evolution
(Fault prognosis) are urgently needed for safe and efficient operations of

* Corresponding author at: The Key Laboratory of Autonomous Systems and Networked Control, Ministry of Education, School of Automation Science & Engi­
neering, South China University of Technology, 510641 Guangdong, China.
E-mail addresses: aulyq@scut.edu.cn, yiqli@kt.dtu.dk (Y. Liu), pear@kt.dtu.dk (P. Ramin), xfa@kt.dtu.dk (X. Flores-Alsina), kvg@kt.dtu.dk (K.V. Gernaey).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2023.02.043
Received 16 November 2022; Received in revised form 24 January 2023; Accepted 14 February 2023
Available online 17 February 2023
0957-5820/© 2023 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Liu et al. Process Safety and Environmental Protection 172 (2023) 501–512

Nomenclature MLR Multiple Linear Regression.

MGPR Multi-Output Gaussian Processes Regression.
AD Anaerobic Digestion. MSPC Multivariate Statistical Process Control.
AI Artificial Intelligence. NO2-N Nitrite Nitrogen.
ASP Activated Sludge Process. NN Neural Networks.
BSM2 Benchmark Simulation Model No.2. PCA Principal Component Analysis.
CC Contribution Charts. RM Receiving Media.
CCA Canonical Correlation Analysis. RNN Recurrent Neural Networks.
DA Data Analytics. RPLS Recursive Partial Least Squares.
DCNN Deep Convolutional Neural Network. RSVM Recursive Support Vector Machines.
DO Dissolved Oxygen. RUL Remaining Useful Life.
ELM Extreme Learning Machine. RVM Relevant Vector Machine.
ENN Ensemble of Neural Networks. SBR Sequencing Batch Reactors.
EPR Evolutionary Polynomial Regression. SID Subspace Identification.
FA Factor Analysis. SNs Sewer Networks.
F/M Food-to-microorganism Ratio. SPE Squared Prediction Error.
FDDP Fault detection, Diagnosis and Prognosis. SRT Sludge Retention Time.
GA Genetic Algorithm. SVI Sludge Volume Index.
GCA Granger Causality Analysis. SVM Support Vector Machine.
GP Gaussian Processes Model. T2 Hotelling’s Statistic.
HGPR Hybrid Gaussian Processes Regression. UWS Urban Wastewater Treatment Systems.
ICA Independent Component Analysis. VAR Vector Auto-regression.
KICA Kernel ICA. VFA Volatile Fatty Acids.
KL Kernel Learning. WWTPs Wastewater Treatment Plants.
KPCA Kernel PCA. MW Moving Window.
MBR Membrane Bioreactors. WM-PCA Moving Window PCA.

UWS.
To manage abnormal behaviors, such as process faults and equip­
ment faults, fault management (detection, diagnosis and prognosis)
approaches are usually categorized into three types: (1) mechanistic-
based, (2) knowledge-based and (3) data-driven methods.
Mechanistic-based methods are developed with the help of accurate
mathematical models typically represented by differential equations,
which requires a deep understanding of the exact physical, chemical and
biological behaviors of the system (Abid et al., 2021). On the contrary,
knowledge-based methods can take full use of symbolic representations
of human knowledge to solve problems, such as expert systems and
ontology-based models (Wilhelm et al., 2021). The successful use of
knowledge-based approaches is highly depending on the expert
knowledge which is usually difficult to be fully digitalized. Despite the
wide applications of mechanistic-based and knowledge-based methods,
both of them have difficulties in dealing with overly complex systems
and overly complicated data sets, including challenges related to
high-dimensionality, significant nonlinearity and so on (Chi et al.,
2018). In addition, the utilization of mechanistic-based and
knowledge-based methods is mainly limited to a specific application and
difficult to be generalized to other areas smoothly. However, as more
and more data can be derived with the help of advanced instrumenta­
tion, the problems in which mathematical models are unavailable or
overly complex can be solved by the use of data-driven approaches. In
the past decades, due to the wide-spread use of sensors and automatic
devices in the wastewater system, a large quantity of data have been
collected for analytics (Newhart et al., 2019). By analyzing the data
patterns and the relationship between variables in the UWS with
data-driven approaches, the data can be transformed into actionable
knowledge, then to facilitate data-driven fault detection, diagnosis and

Fig. 1. Overview of a typical Integrated Urban Wastewater Systems.

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prognosis, even to improve understanding and decision-making in the
UWS (Abid et al., 2021; Li et al., 2020a, 2020b).
To effectively transform data into actionable knowledge and support
data-driven fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis, four types of AI
algorithms are usually used, termed as supervised learning, unsuper­
vised learning, semi-supervised learning and reinforcement learning. To
the best of the authors’ knowledge, only a limited number of papers
about reinforcement learning are available reporting on data-driven
fault detection and diagnosis in the wastewater system (Jordan and
Mitchell, 2015; Wang et al., 2021; Hernandez-del-Olmo and Gaudioso,
2011). Additionally, due to the perpetual operations, the large scale and
the multiple sources of data when composing data sets of a system, the
resulting instrumentation and data complexities usually make standard
supervised learning, unsupervised learning or semi-supervised learning
for fault detection and diagnosis inadequate (Aguado and Rosen, 2008;
Haimi et al., 2016):
• System complexities (i) Due to the a large number of pumping sta­
tions with On-Off behavior especially in pressurized sewer networks
and the continuous treatment processes in the treatment plants, a
wastewater system usually exhibits a hybrid behavior (continuous
and discrete); (ii) The WWTS is always exposed to high uncertainties,
such as extreme weather (rain and storm events), influent variations
(pollution concentrations), and so on; (iii) The management and
maintenance of the UWS are challenging tasks due to the large scale
and limited accessibility, thus exhibiting a large delay features, for
example, toxic pollution will propagate from SNs to the WWTPs
taking several hours or even days to reach the treatment plant; (iv)
Interactions between micro-scale systems (biological behavior) and
macro-scale systems (Operations of SNs and WWTPs) adds more
complexity, and also includes processes such as pH neutralization,
flocculation, coagulation, ion exchange, and oxidation.
• Instrumentation complexities (i) Sensors, actuators, controllers and
other mechanical devices in both SN and WWTPs are always exposed
to harsh environments, such as stormy weather, humidity, debris and
a corrosive atmosphere. (ii) Due to the frequent operations of devices
(pumps in SN and blowers in WWTPs), instrumentation is often
maintained poorly as the equipment requires unacceptable frequent
cleaning and calibration. The malfunction of various technological
components adds further complexity to these events.
• Data complexities (i) Imperfect data: an overwhelming fraction of
missing data and outliers due to instrumentation failure or lack of
hardware sensors; (ii) Nonlinearity: multi-valley, multi-peak and
plateau sections among the dependent and independent variables in
the collected data; (iii) Dynamic and non-stationary features: pump
events or extreme weather or influent variations always result in
asynchronous changes over time as new information becomes
available; (iv) Co-correlation: the data from macroscale (instrumen­
tation) and microscale (microbiology) are correlated and collinear
with each other; (v) Multiple scales: The sample collection time, date
and locations result in multiple sample rates and multiple data scales;
Even though many fault detection and diagnosis algorithms were
reviewed in process engineering, applications in the UWS are still very
limited (Sweetapple et al., 2018; Prochaska and Zouboulis, 2020).
However, the system, instrumentation and data complexities in the UWS
render standard reviews unsuitable. To sum up, this review is different
from existing reviews (Kazemi et al., 2020; Newhart et al., 2019; Kazor
et al., 2016) because:
• Most of the reviews focused on a task with a specific AI algorithm in
the UWS, while none of them investigated and discussed the models
in more detail by coordinating different models for digital twin and
by organizing the models according to model type fitting the digital
twin concept.
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• Systematic data transformation to actable and interpretable knowl­
edge to support fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis of process
faults and instrumentations faults has not been investigated rigor­
ously. Here we considered multiple sources of data including big data
(e.g. on-line nitrogen sensor, dissolved oxygen sensor), small data (e.
g. off-line laboratory analysis in the effluent, COD) analytics with
consideration of nonlinear data and dynamic data.
• The studies on how data-driven models can work together with
mechanistic models and knowledge-based models to enhance the
interpretability of uncertainties are also included in this review.”
• System-wide aspects and the life-cycle of fault management for the
UWS has been investigated and analyzed in this paper. The inspec­
tion of a fault from the earliest stage to emerging conditions (fault
detection-diagnosis-prognosis) and the analysis of a fault from a
systems point of view (sewers-wastewater treatment-anaerobic
digestion) offer a useful cost-effective alternative to refining the
hidden relationships and information across the entire UWS.
The primary purpose of this manuscript is to understand and to
identify the opportunities related to the implementation of a fault
management system in the UWS.
2. Data transformation in fault detection, diagnosis and
prognosis
2.1. Data-driven approaches
The essential behavior of data-driven methods is to analyze historic
datasets collected from the system and discover patterns hidden in the
historic datasets by means of advanced statistical models or Machine
Learning. A complete fault management platform can be built through
AI techniques ranging from data analysis to fault assessment levels. As
profiled in Fig. 2, a data-driven fault management platform usually
consists of fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis (Zhou et al., 2016;
Sun et al., 2020). The purpose of fault detection is to detect if there is
fault or not, whereas fault diagnosis usually answers the question where
the fault is located in the system. Then, once a fault has been diagnosed,
fault prognosis can be performed to predict what time an element of a
system will fail or how much Remaining Useful Life (RUL) is left for
maintenance (Wen et al., 2022).
Depending on the input-output (X-Y) data sets that are available,
data-driven solutions can be categorized into: (i) Supervised methods
which learn from a set of pairs, X-Y and look for differences (e.g., clas­
sification and regression methods); (ii) Unsupervised methods which
learn only from a set of X without Y and look for similarity, (e.g.,
dimensionality reduction and clustering); (iii) Semi-supervised learning
methods which learn from a set of X and a partial set of Y (e.g., classi­
fication, regression and clustering) (Liu and Xie, 2020). Methods for
dimensionality reduction, such as PCA (Principal Component Analysis),
FA (Factor Analysis), ICA (Independent Component Analysis) (Zhou
et al., 2016), or their kernel variants (Liu et al., 2021), are usually
applied for fault detection. They can reduce the dimensionality of the
monitored data, thus allowing maximizing differences between diverse
data groups and discriminating between faulty samples. Another type of
machine learning algorithm for fault diagnosis is classification which is
the task of assigning a label value to a specific class and then recognize if
a new sample belongs to the normal classes or one of the abnormal
classes (Newhart et al., 2019). The most commonly used approaches
include SVM (Support Vector Machine), NN (Neural Networks), RVM
(Relevant Vector Machine), and ELM (Extreme Learning Machine). In
the classifiers, one-class classifiers are generally used for single fault
detection, while multiple-class classifiers can identify multiple faults
simultaneously. Meanwhile, classification or clustering is also able to
recognize the root causality of the detected faults (Zhang et al., 2018).
Regression is mainly used for prediction. In particular, multi-step ahead
prediction assisting with regressions can predict the fault evolution.
Y. Liu et al.
Fig. 2. Interactions of data-driven Methodologies, fault Management and the UWS in a fault management platform.
Even though a generic decision to find the best algorithm suitable for
fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis is difficult, experimenting and
discovering which algorithm and configuration will result in the best
performance for a specific task is necessary and expected.
2.2. Hybrid of mechanistic or knowledge approaches with data-driven
methods
Even though a data-driven approach can achieve better predictive
power, they always lack interpretability and extrapolation power.
Mechanistic or knowledge-based approaches have been favored by
wastewater communities widely mainly due to their straightforward
interpretability in terms of the incorporated process knowledge. How­
ever, these approaches usually must simplify the complex processes that
they should represent at the cost of laborious experiments. To comple­
ment the pros and cons between mechanistic and data-driven models,
serial and parallel hybrid structures are usually used to combine data-
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driven and mechanistic or knowledge-based approaches with great po­
tential to improve the predictive or classification power for FDDP
(Wilhelm et al., 2021). In general, it is difficult to decide on a universal
FDDP strategy to outperform all other methods under diverse re­
quirements. In this light, combining individual FDDP methods provides
an ability to enhance the effectiveness in terms of diagnosis reliability
and accuracy. Picabea et. al. proposed a hybrid of a mechanistic
approach and a neural network serially to model different types of faults
(Picabea et al., 2021). The proposed hybrid model is then able to identify
the unobservable abnormalities in the process industries (Picabea et al.,
2021). Also, a data-knowledge hybrid driven method for gas path fault
diagnosis is proposed by integrating a physical model-based gas path
analysis method with a fault diagnosis ontology model (Chen et al.,
2022). Generally, serial methods allow to select relatively suitable
methods at each step and allow for a sequential re-evaluation of results
in each procedure. Additionally, parallel combination of a physical
model with a data-driven approach for fault diagnosis and prognosis for
Y. Liu et al. Process Safety and Environmental Protection 172 (2023) 501–512

rotating machinery was proposed by Leturiondo (2016). Slimani et al.
(2018) implemented a parallel combination of an observer based and
parity equations based fault diagnosis methods, then feeding the com­
bined residual set into a threshold test function for fault isolation. It is
interesting to note that, by paralleling mechanistic or knowledge-based
FDDG approaches, domain knowledge can be incorporated into the
data-driven models. Indeed, we are convinced that combining
data-driven approaches and mechanistic or knowledge-based ap­
proaches may enhance the overall performance of the FDDG system.
2.3. Transition of models for digital twin
Even though the aforementioned algorithms can be used for fault
management separately, it is difficult to achieve sufficient consensus
across the entire system if many approaches are combined. A digital twin
(DT) provides a cost-effective alternative to combine the individual al­
gorithms with each other and to integrate all their basic functions fully
(Torfs et al., 2022). A digital twin is an environment to link data and
models (regressions, classifications and clustering) to reproduce a vir­
tual representation of a real-world entity or process. For example, to
transit the process models to a DT fully, McLamore et al. (2020) com­
bined the predictive power of mechanistic models (e.g. ASM, BSM) with
data-driven techniques for obtaining a digital proxy of a bioreactor. In
general, application of DTs can support the existing algorithms towards
decision-making, optimization, failure analysis, predictive maintenance,
policy making and investment planning (Torfs et al., 2022; Udugama
et al., 2021). Moretta et al. (2021) used an AD model as a digital twin of
an anaerobic co-digestion process and applied it to support energy
saving and green gas emission reduction control. However, data-driven
iault management, particularly in the UWS (Darvishi et al., 2021).
Matheri et al. (2022) proposed a digital twin in a decentralized water
and wastewater treatment to identify and recognize the spread of
COVID-19. Investigations from the UWS show that a digital twin com­
bined with fault management can act more intelligent, but is still in the
infant stage in terms of considering all approaches together for UWS
operations (Torfs et al., 2022). A data-driven methodology and fault
management will accelerate the transition of models to digital twin
applications, such as effluent quality control, green gas emission control
and equipment malfunctions.
3. Data-driven fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis in the
UWS
3.1. Investigation of applications in the UWS
In summary, the use of data-driven methods for fault management in
the UWS has been very limited in the past two decades (2001–2022). By
searching for the terms “Fault” or “Abnormality” together with the
keywords ‘Wastewater’ or ‘Activated sludge’ or ‘Sewers’ or ‘Sewage’ or
‘Anaerobic digestion’or ‘Water resource recovery’ and ‘Detection’ or
‘Diagnosis’ or ‘Prognosis’ or ‘Monitoring’ in Scopus, 255 articles were
found by limiting the search to articles written in English. In these 255
articles, fault detection accounts for 238 articles, whereas fault diagnosis
accounts for 78 articles. The reason why the total number of articles

Fig. 3. Contribution percentage of different data-driven methods to the published literature of the past two decades: Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Inde­
pendent Component Analysis (ICA), Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA), Neural Networks (NN), Kernel learning, Bayesian learning Gaussian Processes Model (GP),
Partial Least Square (PLS), Sampling methods, Factor Analysis (FA), Fuzzy system, Combination/mixture, Expert system, Deep learning, Decision tree.

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about fault detection and diagnosis is greater than 255 is because fault
detection and diagnosis are used together in some articles. As profiled in
Fig. 3(a) surveyed from Scopus, the number of published papers is
distributed unevenly over the years, but still increased from 2001 to
2022. It is important to notice that fault detection accounts for most
applications (Fig. 3(a)).
To further evaluate the contributions and applications of each
method, a closer analysis of the major fault detection methods (224
articles) and fault diagnosis methods (69 articles) shown in Fig. 3(a) and
Fig. 3(b). In fault detection, PCA accounts for 17.4% of the published
studies (39), whereas other methods exhibit similar percentages. It is
interesting to notice that combination or mixture methods attribute a
high percentage relatively. This kind of methods consist of combining or
mixing two or more than two methods to achieve the fault detection or
diagnosis. Also, the number of fault diagnosis and prognosis studies in
the wastewater area is much lower than the number of applications of
fault detection methods. By inspecting the key database in Scopus, a
general schematic of all applications of data-driven methods in the UWS
between 2001 and 2021 is displayed in Fig. 3(a). It is obvious that even
though data-driven methods has found its application fault manage­
ment, the data-driven fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis are still in
their infancy in the UWS. Particularly, only four articles about fault
prognosis in the UWS were found. This is mainly because the fault
degradation data are difficult to collect, thus rendering fault prognosis
methods unavailable.
3.2. Process faults
In the UWS, the process faults mainly consist of sewer corrosion,
sludge bulking and performance failures of wastewater treatment
technologies as shown in Fig. 4. Wastewater treatment technologies
mainly correspond to treatment efficiency in the WWTPs, such as
abnormally high energy consumption, too high consumption of expen­
sive chemicals, inefficient operations, and the risk for compliance
violations.
Fig. 4. Potential process faults in the UWS, including pipe corrosion in SNs, over loading influent, low treatment efficiency, undesired effluent, sludge bulking,
undesired emission in WWTPs and low treatment efficiency in AD.
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(1) Sludge bulking
Sludge bulking is usually considered as one of the most serious
problem in the activated sludge process (ASP) for more than 50%
of the WWTPs, mainly resulting from the excessive growth of
filamentous bacteria in the secondary clarifier. Sludge bulking
causes poor activated sludge separation and results in a loss of
solids with the final effluent. This leads to higher cost as well as
poorer operation (Liu et al., 2016).
To recognize a sludge bulking event, Han et al. (2019) pro­
posed a self-organizing type-2 fuzzy-neural-network together
with a smart identification method to identify and categorize
different types of sludge bulking. In this paper, the sludge volume
index (SVI) was predicted and used as the indicator for sludge
bulking, thus supporting decision-making. Unfortunately, this
method mainly relies on univariate fault detection, which is not a
suitable approach to describe multivariate relationships of sludge
bulking and unable to reflect the true causality. To recognize and
predict sludge bulking by monitoring SVI, Liu et al. enhanced
canonical correlation analysis with the variational Bayesian
mixture learning, then to support fault detection design. In this
method, the Student’s t-distribution was involved into the vari­
ational Bayesian mixture of canonical correlation analysis
(VBMCCA) model to ensure that the fault detection method has
the ability to account for uncertainties, such as noise and dis­
turbances. Both sensor faults and sludge bulking were well
recognized accurately and timely with this approach (Liu et al.,
2018). Moreover, to correctly predict sludge bulking beforehand,
a Multi-Output Gaussian Processes Regression (MGPR) together
with a Vector auto-regression (VAR) was used to track down the
evolution of sludge bulking several days ahead. The associated
confidence levels in the GPR model were also able to quantify
uncertainty about the model discrepancy (Liu et al., 2017a).
However, the aforementioned methods are only limited to fault
detention or diagnosis or prognosis. This makes them insufficient
for fault life cycle management. Therefore, a novel maintenance
Y. Liu et al.
framework was proposed able to implement collective behaviors
involving fault detection, causality analysis, remaining useful life
(RUL) and maintenance, then to support sludge bulking man­
agement (Liu et al., 2020).
Even though several AI-based data-driven frameworks were
proposed to detect, diagnose and predict sludge bulking, the
specific type of sludge bulking that occurs is difficult to decide
upon due to the complexities of the interactions between waste­
water composition and the bacteria population in the sludge.
Therefore, the best way could be to integrate the fault detection,
diagnosis, and prognosis methodology with image analysis. By
resorting to image analysis, the type of sludge bulking, such as
filamentous or non-filamentous sludge bulking, can be justified
and proper maintenance strategies can be developed. Zhao et al.
(2019). trained a deep U-Net with data augmentation, then per­
formed PCM image analysis to automate floc and filament seg­
mentation identification. By analyzing the image segmentation of
flocs and filaments, a sludge volume index (SVI) sensor can be
derived and the filamentous bulking can be detected earlier (Zhao
et al., 2019). But, there is a fundamental issue at stake, since
detection and diagnosis failures could happen due to a large
number of sludge bulking events. Diverse factors could affect the
sludge bulking from the macroscopic or microscopic point of
view, such as dissolved oxygen (DO) levels,
food-to-microorganism ratio (F/M), presence of nitrite nitrogen
(NO2-N), carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio, pH, sludge retention
time (SRT) (Comas et al., 2008). Understanding the causality of
sludge bulking by combining data and prior knowledge will
potentially facilitate sludge bulking management.
(2) Sewer corrosion
Repairing and maintaining sewer networks cost trillions of US
dollars worldwide every year (Pikaar et al., 2014). The emission
of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is usually considered as the major
causality of corrosion and odor problems in sewer networks
(Jiang et al., 2016). In case that the emission of hydrogen sulfide
(H2S) or sulfide can be well predicted in the SNs, proper
decision-making can be achieved to assist engineers and asset
managers in sewer corrosion management (Jiang et al., 2015).
Alani et. al. proposed an evolutionary polynomial regression
(EPR) based data-driven method to describe the sulphide
build-up in the sewer pipes. In EPR, a genetic algorithm (GA)
worked together with a least square algorithm to identify the
parameters, thereby building a predictive model to track down
the sulphide build-up to support corrosion maintenance and
prevention (Alani et al., 2014). Different from the EPR model, a
hybrid of first-principles and data-driven models was built. In the
first layer, a hybrid Gaussian Processes Regression (HGPR) was
also constructed to predict the corrosion rate and corrosion
initiation time. Then, the service life of sewers was predicted in
the second layer by using a first-principles model depending on
the predicted corrosion rate and corrosion initiation time. It is
important to notice that, since the collected data was limited, an
interpolation technique was used to extend the data size to ensure
that the data-driven model can be well trained. The proposed
model was validated in an Australian SN (Liu et al., 2017b). Even
though the collected data was interpolated by an algorithm, in­
dependence and Gaussian distribution assumptions among the
data needed to be guaranteed. Also, due to the data limitation,
both auto-correlation and partial auto-correlation among data
were not taken into account, therefore leading to the use of a
steady model for dynamic prediction.
Zounemat-Kermani et al. (2021). compared the standard and
online version of kernel ELM, NN and MLR, then took full use of
the sulfuric acid corrosive factor in SNs to calculate and estimate
concrete mass loss of pipes. To ensure the pipe diversity, six
different kinds of concrete were accessed in terms of mass loss
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which provides a data set able to act as the target values. The
results suggested that the online ELM outperformed the other
investigated models by predicting the concrete mass loss with
respect to different types of concrete (Zounemat-Kermani et al.,
2021). It is of great importance to note that, rather than big data
analytics, the prognosis of sewer corrosion is definitely a
small-data problem due to the slow corrosion rate. Therefore,
linear models, SVM and RVM present more suitable behaviors
and demonstrate better performance. In fact, to deal with the
small data issue, the small dataset can be augmented by transfer
learning of domain knowledge and other tasks, such as generative
adversarial networks (Ferguson et al., 2014). This limitation can
be compensated by the first-principles knowledge, which, in turn,
can impose constraints on purely data-driven methods and then
can ensure data-driven algorithms converge faster into reason­
able optima.
(3) Wastewater treatment technologies
The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove C, N and P
efficiently with the combination of biological, chemical and physical
reactions in the treatment plant. The treatment has to ensure that the
effluent of WWTPs lives up to a certain quality standard. The most
typical methods are the activated sludge process (ASP), membrane
bioreactor (MBR) processes and sequencing batch reactors (SBR) pro­
cesses. In the sequel of the wastewater treatment, anaerobic digestion
(AD) is also used to reduce and transform organic waste (sludge) from
industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants into a gas mixture
mainly of methane and carbon dioxide. It is imperative to monitor both
wastewater treatment and AD systems to ensure efficient treatment in
the entire process (Poh et al., 2016).
Treating wastewater is often combined with complementary tech­
nologies such as MBR. This technology is widely applied with the
advantage of achieving high effluent quality and offering a high rate of
degradation. However, membrane fouling is usually taken as the most
serious problem to lower treatment efficiency, especially when treating
industrial wastewater. To control membrane fouling, Santos et al. used
PCA and other MSPC to capture the correlations between operating
variables and critical analytic variables of a full-scale MBR which aims
to treat oil refinery wastewater. In this article, several critical variables,
such as sludge filterability, temperature, and so on, are identified as the
most influential variables for membrane fouling. The selected variables
were used for MBR performance prediction, enabling operating faults
identification. It is interesting to notice that T2 and SPE control charts
were able to recognize and declare the low efficiency of membrane
permeability operation. Therefore, the MSPC could be utilized for
decision-making with respect to fouling control and be set up as a
guideline with respect to the timing to implement chemical cleanings or
dose membrane permeability improvers (Santos et al., 2021).
Another important concern is to monitor the quality variables in the
effluent of WWTPs. Colomer et al. proposed a novel methodology by
combining both Unfold PCA and a classification algorithm, being able to
monitor the quality variables in the effluent for an SBR process. In the
proposed methodology, the Unfold PCA model was built and identified
by using a normal operational data set, then to discriminate abnormal
batch events and to acquire a useful fault signature by resorting to the
contribution plots. Furthermore, the fault signature was generated and
classified by a classification algorithm, in such a way that the abnormal
events of the effluent quality can be recognized and estimated. In this
article, nine different classification algorithms are compared and used
for monitoring and classifications of the organic matter, ammonium,
nitrate and phosphate removal (Colomer et al., 2013).
With the ever-increasing awareness about energy and environment
security, the AD process has received significant attention from both
academic and industrial communities, mainly due to the ability to pro­
duce bio-energy (biogas) from waste and wastewater. To prevent low
efficiency and failures of the AD system, the essential task is to make
Y. Liu et al.
sure the four steps of the digestion process (hydrolysis, acidogenesis,
acetogenesis, and methanogenesis) perform smoothly and then to pre­
vent accumulation of inhibitory or toxic compounds, such as ammonia
or sulfide in the system. In the AD system, the VFA concentration, as an
intermediate compound formed in the acidogenesis step, was selected
commonly as quality control variable, because it is not only able to
monitor the process health with respect to gas production, but it is also
capable of reflecting the imbalance in the incoming feed. An SVM-based,
an ELM-based and an ensemble of NNs (ENN) based data-driven
framework were proposed to predict total volatile fatty acids (VFA) in­
side the AD. The residual between actual VFA and predicted VFA was
generated and combined with univariate statistical control charts for
fault detection in the benchmark simulation model No.2 (BSM2)
(Kazemi et al., 2021). The purpose of efficiency control is to monitor the
inefficiency and even abnormality, then to locate the root causality of
inefficiency. Such information is needed to feed information to a suit­
able controller or an optimizer to enhance the operational efficiency. It
is important to notice that sewer networks, wastewater treatment plants
or anaerobic digestion are designed for different purposes. How to co­
ordinate different purposes and to optimize the treatment efficiency are
still open issues for wastewater engineers.
3.3. Instrumentation faults
In the UWS, the instrumentation faults mainly come from sensors,
controllers, actuators as shown in Fig. 5. The effect of such faults could
be more severe if the sensors or controllers or actuators are incorporated
in a closed loop.
(1) Sensor faults
Sensors are widely used to acquire data and information in the
UWS. Small WWTPs always install standard on-line sensors, such
as DO, Flow, Level, oxidation-reduction potential and suspended
Fig. 5. The general overview of integration of sensors, actuators, controllers, and cyber-physical structure in the UWS.
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Process Safety and Environmental Protection 172 (2023) 501–512
solids. Off-line analysis includes. Off-line analysis includes, COD,
BOD, TP and TN are analyzed off-line, whereas larger WWTPs
typically include both off-line and on-line sensors (Olsson,
2012a). In the UWS, most sensors are usually exposed to harsh
environments, such as high temperature (e.g. in thermal hydro­
lysis), humidity, a corrosive environment, thus leading to fouling
or damages, that are further affecting the sensors accuracy and
reliability (Anter et al., 2020). A sensor failure will degrade the
system performance and potentially cause a significant damage,
particularly, if the sensing signal is used in control systems or if
the sensor, e.g. NH+ 4 , is used for decision making (manually or
automatically). The involvement of sensors in closed loop will
add further potentials for cascade error propagation. Therefore,
the early detection, diagnosis and prognosis of faults in sensors
are essentially able to ensure safe and reliable operations of the
UWS. Based on (Li et al., 2020b), the types of sensor faults are
classified into degradation failure (bias, drift, gain) and sudden
failure (abrupt, noise, random).
Safe and reliable operations of the WWTPs are highly depen­
dent on the correct function of the DO sensor which is essentially
an important component of the aeration control system (Åmand
et al., 2013). Aeration accounts for the majority of the energy
consumption in the WWTP, and therefore there are significant
incentives to properly monitor and control the aeration process.
Luca et al. used PCA to detect different typical DO sensor faults
(Luca et al., 2021). To validate bias, drifting, loss of accuracy,
even complete failure, all aforementioned faults were simulated
in a system consisting of Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic (A2O) reactors,
but not to validate in real data (Henze et al., 1999). The results
demonstrated that all the DO sensor faults can be recognized and
the performance of the proposed methods was well assessed in
terms of promptness, effectiveness, and accuracy of fault detec­
tion. Deep learning methods, such as variational residual
Y. Liu et al.
autoencoders and deep dropout neural network are discussed and
implemented in other studies for sensor fault detection in WWTPs
(Mali and Laskar, 2020; Ba-Alawi et al., 2022).
Beside DO, flow sensors and ammonium sensors are also
commonly used in the UWS. Samuelsson et al. enhanced the GP
model with the sequential Monte Carlo estimation methodology
(GP-SMC), to predict the drift faults in flow rate and ammonium
sensors. The results demonstrated that GP-SMC achieved the best
performance for the sensor faults prediction and was able to
monitor full-scale WWTPs (Samuelsson et al., 2017). To minimize
the negative influence of sensor faults on the quality of the con­
trol system performance, Dovžan et al. proposed a fault-detection
system using the evolving fuzzy method together with an adap­
tation mechanism to manipulate and identify the models’ pa­
rameters on-line (Dovžan et al., 2015). Incorrect manual
calibrations as well as faults in oxygen, air-flow sensors and
influent ammonia concentration sensors were validated by using
the proposed fault-detection system (Dovžan et al., 2015). In
addition, Cheng et al. (2020) proposed a novel Bayesian transfer
learning methodology enhanced by ensemble adaptive sparse
learning, then further implemented it for nonlinear fault diag­
nosis. In this article, to monitor the operating conditions, the
proposed method took full use of the probabilistic relevance
vector machine and a Bayesian framework to approach the fault
evolutions. Transfer learning can be used to transfer historical
data or learned models to update the diagnosis model in the new
scenarios. The proposed framework was validated for sensor fault
detection in a full-scale WWTP (Cheng et al., 2020). Due to the
importance of the effluent quality in view of stringent environ­
mental standards, most papers focus on oxygen, nitrate and ni­
trite sensors which all measure variables with a significant effect
on the effluent quality. Despite these studies, in general, it can be
concluded that sensor fault diagnosis and prognosis in the UWS
still requires significant research and development to include a
more comprehensive evaluation of faults and its consequences
related to different sensors especially for the ones connected to
control systems.
(2) Actuators faults
Actuators are the essential elements in the UWS able to take proper
actions in response to a control system, for example, to manipulate KLa
to ensure proper DO in the aerobic tanks. KLa is the oxygen mass transfer
coefficient, equivalent to airflow in aerated reactors. The typical actu­
ators in the UWS mainly involve flow valves, flow splitters, gates,
pumps, moveable weirs as well as inflatable dams. Moreover, a large
number of actuators have been developed and used with a significant
effect on treatment quality, such as aeration devices and chemical
dosing devices. Properly manipulating the actuators ensures optimal
opening and closing times, thus optimizing the number of displacements
and reducing the failure frequency.
To deal with the multi-period fault diagnosis of actuators in an SBR,
Zhou et al. proposed an enhanced multi-way principal component
analysis (MPCA). In this method, based on the sub-period division and
using the similarity measurement strategies, the interference and in­
teractions among faults in multiple periods can be minimized, then to
ensure accurate sequential fault recognition and identification. The
proposed methodology was used to monitor a large number of variables
in the SBR reactor of a paper mill, for example, the blower current, the
blower valve opening, the wastewater level as well as the dissolved
oxygen. The results show the feasibility and reliability of the proposed
MPCA method (Zhou et al., 2021). In addition, Purbowaskito et al.
proposed a data-driven subspace identification (SID) algorithm to detect
and diagnose the abnormal events in an induction motor (Purbowaskito
et al., 2021). In this article, a state-space model related to the voltage
and current signals was built and then used for residual signal genera­
tion in a quasi-steady-state condition. Depending on the comparison
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Process Safety and Environmental Protection 172 (2023) 501–512
between the residual signals and a designed threshold, the decision for a
fault identification and corresponding fault signatures can be derived
and applied for a wastewater pump. The article imposed both known
and unknown faulty signatures into a wastewater pump, demonstrating
that the proposed method is more sensitive than standard methods, then
able to achieve more accurate fault diagnosis for both known and un­
known faults (Purbowaskito et al., 2021). It is interesting to notice that
the former article is based on a purely data-driven model, whereas the
latter article focuses on the mechanistic model by resorting to a
state-space model. Also, both articles used a divide and conquer strat­
egy, aiming to explore sub-models to achieve more accurate perfor­
mance. From an engineering point of view, developing an accurate fault
detection method requires sufficient faulty data in the UWS. However,
deriving enough data for actuator faults is unrealistic. The alternative
solutions are to leverage expert knowledge to work together with
data-driven fault detection and diagnosis methods similar with the small
data learning methodologies. Furthermore, combining data from actu­
ators and sensors is useful to enhance a fault analysis. However, the
imbalance of actuator samples and sensor samples could lead to inac­
curate learning for fault classifications. Semi-supervised learning could
provide an alternative.
4. Discussion, challenges and opportunities
4.1. Discussion
So far, the focus of this review has been on approaches and appli­
cations showing the potentials of AI and DA to substantially promote the
fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis of the UWS. These will enable a
switch from a pure infrastructure to a smart system and result in
upgrading existing infrastructures for active management of process
faults (sludge bulking, sewer corrosion, performance degradation) and
instrument faults (sensor and actuator faults). This is especially relevant
in view of the ongoing development of information science, artificial
intelligence and automation. In general, nonlinear methods always
require big data for training, particularly, when these nonlinear methods
are extended to a deep learning structure or broad learning structure
(fast and accurate learning without deep structure). Otherwise,
nonlinear methods could converge into local minima and result in
under-fitting. On the contrary, linear methods can be utilized to both big
and small data. The main reason why SVM, RVM and other kernel
methods can perform well is because they can choose a linear kernel
function for classifications. It is interesting to notice that all the listed
methods are resorting to mapping manipulation which is able to
represent high dimensional data into another subspace of lower
dimensionality. By discriminating the residual between the original and
the reconstructed raw data, abnormalities can be recognized properly.
Most of the surveyed statistical learning methods, such as PCA, ICA, CCA
and others, must be combined with contribution plots if the intention is
to perform fault diagnosis. The reason why the methodologies are able
to deal with multiple faults detection mainly results from the fact that
the corresponding nonlinear methods can be used for multiple classifi­
cations simultaneously. Meanwhile, prognosis is mainly depending on
whether the methods can perform regression or even multiple-step
regression. It is obvious that fault diagnosis methods are not present.
This is mainly based on the fact that, to properly diagnose the root
causality, contribution plots and their variants have to work together
with the linear dimensionality reduction methods. Another alternative is
to resort to graph theory and network analysis methods, such as Granger
Causality Analysis and Bayesian Networks. Through graph theory
methods, the inter and intra- relationship among variables can be
analyzed and virtualized.
4.2. Challenges
The availability of more data also raises concerns, even though
Y. Liu et al.
advances in technologies and methods are catching up. We suggest
seven challenges which need special considerations:
(1) How to quantify and qualify the fault propagations systematically
and to combine them with optimization techniques to assist op­
erators to optimize fault management of the current and future
scenarios. Even though the fault management of SNs, WWTPs and
ADs is considered separately, few research efforts have been
devoted to take into account the relationships among the
different processes and take a systematic view on how to safely
operate the entire urban wastewater system. The super large-
scale UWS adds further complexity to the fault propagations
and typically costs several days across the entire system. Plant-
wide or system-wide fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis
methods could act as the alternatives to deal with these problems.
Also, it is interesting to notice that systematic management of
faults can virtualize the fault propagations across the UWS (Ge,
2017).
(2) How to analyze fault evolutions since the early stage of a fault and
then to support decision-making in the UWS. Most studies are
mainly focusing on a single fault management step, such as fault
detection or diagnosis or prognosis (Newhart et al., 2019). Slow
evolution rates of undesired bacteria’s behaviors in the sewers or
WWTPs provides more potential to combine fault detection,
diagnosis and prognosis. However, a single step is definitely not
sufficient to support the decision making properly. The devel­
opment of a life cycle method for fault management is imperative,
which will integrate fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis
simultaneously and enable better maintenance actions to be
taken earlier. These will add further potential for reducing failure
and potential cost-savings.
(3) How to design a mixed optimization algorithm to coordinate a
hybrid of discrete and continuous behaviors in the UWS to ach­
ieve more energy saving, better effluent quality and greenhouse
gas emission. Due to the on-off working patterns in pumping
stations, which is different from other process industries, the
UWS will exhibit a hybrid of discrete and continuous behaviors.
These hybrid behaviors will add further complexity to fault
detection, diagnosis and prognosis methodologies (Xiao et al.,
2021). Therefore, coordinating discrete and continuous behav­
iors is necessary for optimal fault management.
(4) How to assimilate data sets with different sample scales for fault
detection, diagnosis and prognosis. In the UWS, the data could be
collected at fast (such as flow rate, DO) or slow sample rates (such
as COD, VFA). Therefore, it is difficult to decide that the data-
driven methodologies are purely dependent on big data or
small data analytics for fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis.
Transformations of big, median and small data to actionable
knowledge render standard methods unsuitable. Semi-supervised
learning could be the option for solutions that ensure full use of
all the data (slow sample rate and fast sample rate).
(5) How to collaborate data-driven, knowledge-based and mecha­
nistic fault management methodologies deeply or iteratively to
achieve accurate fault management, rather than simply combine
them serially or parallelly, due to the combination of known and
unknown physical, chemical and biological behaviors in the
UWS. Since data-driven, knowledge-based and mechanistic fault
management methodologies could complement each other in
UWS applications, a hybrid of data-driven and knowledge-driven
methodologies could potentially be better. Even though artificial
intelligence received significant attention, most methods are not
easily interpretable, such as NN. This adds a large amount of
uncertainties and unreliability to the data-driven methodologies
and increases the unreliability of fault detection, diagnosis and
prognosis methods (Loquercio et al., 2020). Prior knowledge is
needed to assimilate into data-driven methods to ensure that the
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Process Safety and Environmental Protection 172 (2023) 501–512
fault detection, diagnosis and prognosis results are interpretable
and explainable.
(6) How to deal with the occurrences and interactions of multiple
faults issues in the UWS. Because a large number of sensors and
instruments are installed and work under complex conditions
(such as stormy weather, corrosion due to H2S, over-sensitive
behaviors of bacteria, and so on) in the UWS, there will be a
high potential that coexistence of multiple faults could happen.
However, until now, limited research effort has been devoted to
the multiple faults problem in the UWS (Fragkoulis et al., 2011).
If such a situation would occur – i.e. occurrence of multiple faults
simultaneously – combined with the hybrid of discrete and
continuous behaviors, the coexistence of multiple faults could
add further complexity and render faults impossible to be isolated
and diagnosed correctly.
(7) How to involve frontline staff behaviors in a closed loop to form
the cyber-physical system to improve UWS management. The
wastewater system and cybernetic system (Human-Hardware
devices, i.e., sensors, actuators and controllers-information) are
increasingly complex and interrelated, particularly, the often
unknown interplay between the macroscale (instrumentations,
human, reaction tanks) and microscale (microbial ecosystem)
systems. A partial digital twin, rather than a complete digital
twin, could be more practical. Thus, it is important to take into
account the needs of frontline staff to deliver the right actionable
knowledge in the correct format to make the appropriate decision
with more trust and less time consumption. Understanding how a
cybernetic system interacts with the UWS and frontline staff and
then performing uncertainty analysis, reliability and resilience
analysis of fault management methodologies and the UWS are of
great importance.
4.3. Opportunities
The purpose of transforming data into actionable knowledge in fault
detection, diagnosis and prognosis of UWS is to improve maintenance,
prevent system failure and finally ensure optimal operation and cost-
saving. To achieve this purpose, the UWS needs to transform raw data
to informative knowledge for fault management and to automate their
current safe operation paradigms. Despite a large number of literature
references reporting on AI-based data-driven fault management
methods in the UWS, a guidance for method selection is not well
formulated, leading to difficulties in selecting the ‘best’ method to
address domain issues. Therefore, there is now an ever-increasing need
to develop standardized protocols rather than new techniques. It is of
great importance that the existence of tools like the Benchmark Simu­
lation Model (BSM) platform provides a baseline for method compari­
sons, even to twin or partially twin the true system (Flores-Alsina et al.,
2012).
The concept of Digital Twins (DT) was proposed for product lifecycle
management (Udugama et al., 2021). By digitalizing the UWS, the be­
haviors of the system, such as the macroscale system (e.g. sewer net­
works, pump stations, WWTP) and the microscale system (for example,
aerobic bacteria and sulphate reducing bacteria), can be simulated and
predicted, which can be used for fault detection, diagnosis and prog­
nosis. In addition, due to the wide spreading of sewer networks and
WWTPs around cities, it is inevitable that the UWS exhibits a super large
scale management structure. Sending data to the cloud for analysis will
however not likely to be the dominant trend in the UWS in the near
future due to the computational burden from the increasing number of
devices and the extensive data traffic in the Internet-of-Things. New
computing paradigms, such as edge computing and transparent
computing, have emerged to reshape the UWS cyber system such that
heavy data-driven models and DTs or partial DTs will become closer and
closer to reality. These models can simulate detailed activities of bio­
logical behaviors from the microscale perspective, which usually implies
Y. Liu et al.
intensive computation. This can be solved by quantum computing in the
future (Andersson et al., 2022). By approaching the microscale and
macroscale behaviors of the UWS with digital twins, both instrumen­
tation and bacteria-related faults can be detected, diagnosed and pre­
dicted properly.
In summary, the most promising prospect is that data-driven fault
detection, diagnosis and prognosis of the UWS can offer novel ways to
facilitate safe and optimal operations, and provide a higher level of
maintenance with less failures and lower investment.
5. Conclusions
This review attempted to investigate and analyze the methods and
applications to turn data into actionable knowledge for fault detection,
diagnosis and prognosis of process faults and instrumentation faults in
an UWS. In this article, several potential research aspects were found
important and are supposed to be further developed in the future:
• Qualifications of a fault from a systematic, life-cycle and multiple-
scale view;
• Hybrid of data-driven, mechanistic and knowledge-driven models for
fault management;
• Coordination of continuous and discrete behaviors across the UWS
for fault management;
• Detection, diagnosis and prognosis of multiple faults simultaneously;
• Involvement of human behaviors in a closed loop for fault
management;
By analyzing the above perspectives, challenges and opportunities
are massive and could rapidly reshape the UWS facilities. One can
imagine the UWS benefiting from artificial intelligence and data ana­
lytics. The UWS will be upgraded into a smart and sophisticated system
with reduced failure, better maintenance and even more focus on cost-
saving.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Yiqi Liu: data curation, investigation, formal analysis, validation,
and writing-original draft. Pedram Ramin: conceptualization, meth­
odology, writing-review and editing. Xavier Flores-Alsina: wri­
ting—review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition. Krist V.
Gernaey: writing—review and editing, supervision, and funding
acquisition.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
Yiqi Liu thanks for the support of Horizon 2020 Framework Pro­
gramme-Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (891627). This
work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Founda­
tion of China (62273151, 61873096, 62073145), the Basic and Applied
Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province
(2020A1515011057, 2021B1515420003), the Guangdong International
Scientific Cooperation Research Foundation (2020A0505100024,
2021A0505060001).
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