Application of a New Architecture Neural Network in Determination of Flocculant Dosing for Better Controlling Drinking Water Quality

In drinking water plants, accurate control of flocculation dosing not only improves the level of operation automation, thus reducing the chemical cost, but also strengthens the monitoring of pollutants in the whole water system. In this study, we used feedforward signal and feedback signal data to establish a back-propagation (BP) model for the prediction of flocculant dosing. We examined the effect of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and data type on the simulation performance of the model. The results showed that the parameters, such as the learning factor, population size, and number of generations, significantly affected the simulation. The best optimization conditions were attained at a learning factor of 1.4, population size of 20, 20 generations, 8 feedforward signals and 1 feedback signal as input data, 6 hidden layer nodes, and 1 output node. The coefficient of determination (R2) between the predicted and measured values was 0.68, and the root mean square error (RMSE) was lower than 20%, showing a good prediction result. Weak time-delay data enhanced the model accuracy, which increased the R2 to 0.73. Overall, with the hybridized data, PSO, and weak time-delay data, the new architecture neural network was able to predict flocculant dosing.