Water and Wastewater Building CPS: Creation of Cyber-Physical Wastewater Collection System Centered on Urine Diversion

Abstract

Decentralized treatment of wastewater has been identified as an area of growth for cyber-enabled sensing and control. One such system that would benefit from embedded cyber components is urine diversion. This research sought to create a cyber-physical system for wastewater collection and treatment. Two subsystems were integrated into the CPS: sensing and actuation. Real-time sensing using low-cost pH and conductivity sensors was used to monitor urine chemistry. Actuation was used to deliver urine to the system and to control urine chemistry. Once integrated, the system used the sensing data to determine when to actuate urine chemistry control pumps. By using urine diversion as a test case, two demonstrations were able to show the applicability of the system created. The first demonstration was able to characterize the flow characteristics of the physical system. The second demonstration was able to mimic and inhibit urea hydrolysis under realistic conditions. Ultimately, the use of this novel CPS approach was able to confirm the benefits of sensing and actuation in wastewater collection and treatment within buildings.