Date: August 23, 2024
Bridging the Data Gap:
Digital and Physical Twins
to Advance Water Reuse Operations
This article is published by WateReuse Association in collaboration with National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI). Lauren Nicole Core is water specialist consultant with the World Bank Group and communications lead with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA; lcore@worldbank.org and lncore@lbl.gov.
The global water sector is facing a multitude of unprecedented challenges, including water scarcity, pollution, aging infrastructure, affordability issues, and complex operational demands. Innovative solutions are imperative to ensure the efficient and effective use and reuse of water.
In this context, advanced modeling and optimization methods, particularly the use of digital twins, offer pathways to significantly enhance water reuse processes. A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical object, water system, or a set of water treatment processes that can be used for simulation, testing, monitoring, and maintenance. Digital twins use the latest in advanced data analytics to improve access to water through improved reuse operations. Their simulations are crucial for testing the system under various conditions and optimizing operations, but can be limited by sparse or unreliable data available from the facility’s sensors.
To address these challenges, National Alliance for Water Innovation is supporting research to develop a hybrid model that combines a digital twin and a physical twin to simulate and optimize an existing water reuse process. The project will enable operators to understand the consequences of large deviations from normal operations.
NAWI represents the most significant United States federal investment in water treatment, desalination, and water reuse since the 1960s. Supported by the United States Department of Energy in collaboration with the California Department of Water Resources and the California State Water Resources Control Board, NAWI is led by the United States’s Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, National Energy Technology Laboratory, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
The Power of Hybrid Models
By harnessing the power of digital twins, utilities can make optimized, data-driven decisions that enhance water management practices. This leads to greater sustainability, resilience, and efficiency throughout the entire water lifecycle. Integrating advanced data analytics into water reuse operations marks a pivotal shift towards achieving sustainable water management. However, three critical challenges need to be addressed to fully realize this potential.
First, water reuse facilities face challenges related to managing the volume, complexity, and diversity of data, making information challenging to capture, store, verify, analyze, and share. In particular, these facilities often lack complete, accurate, and high-resolution data sets, which are essential for robust modeling and optimization. The available data is frequently inconsistent and does not capture outlier events, which are crucial for creating reliable predictive models.
Second, connectivity between the treatment facility and its digital twin requires facility-wide implementation of advanced sensors to monitor and transmit real-time data, as well as automated equipment to enable remote control. The placement and maintenance of sensors within these facilities often prioritize convenience over process optimization, leading to data that fails to capture key aspects of a treatment step or accumulates inaccuracies over time due to sensor fouling and drift.
The third key challenge relates to the transferability of developed algorithms. Water reuse facilities are highly site-specific, influenced by the unique characteristics of their influent and operational parameters. Consequently, an algorithm optimized for one facility may not be applicable to another.
Enhancing Decision-Making with Digital Twins
The physical twin—essentially a small-scale treatment unit that mirrors the full-scale functionality—will generate additional datasets, particularly by allowing operation in edge cases and rare outlier events that the larger operating treatment plant would avoid. By updating the digital twin with data from the physical twin, the model’s accuracy and reliability will be significantly enhanced. This approach allows for rigorous testing and validation of recommended actions before they are implemented in the full-scale system. Additionally, it provides a controlled environment to introduce and study rare events, thereby improving the model’s robustness.
“As we look toward the future of securing safe water for all, digital twins emerge as a transformative solution,” said Peter Fiske, Executive Director of the National Alliance for Water Innovation. “These advanced models leverage real-world data, unencumbered by the limitations of current sensor technology, to enhance decision-making processes within water facilities. By employing cost-effective technology, digital twins enable more efficient management of remote and understaffed operations, even in the face of rare and unexpected events.”
The hybrid model’s primary objective is to minimize power demand and energy consumption, critical factors in the sustainability of water reuse operations. Energy costs are a significant component of the overall operational expenses for water treatment facilities. Therefore, optimizing energy usage without compromising the quality and reliability of water treatment processes is of paramount importance. This project aims to demonstrate that a hybrid approach can not only reduce power consumption but also enhance the overall operational efficiency and resilience of water reuse facilities.
Building Trust in Hybrid Models
“Integrating advanced data analytics into water reuse operations holds immense potential for enhancing sustainability and efficiency. The WateReuse Association and our members are committed to continuously enhancing water reuse monitoring and operations, which can help extend the benefits of water reuse to more communities around the world,” said Patricia Sinicropi, Executive Director of the WateReuse Association.
One of the most compelling aspects of this research project is its potential to build trust in digital twin technology for real-time decision support. The ability to predict and respond to unusual power events, such as brownouts or blackouts, can significantly enhance the resilience of water reuse operations, particularly in remote or unstaffed facilities. The combination of digital and physical twins provides a robust framework for online decision-support systems, allowing operators to make informed decisions based on reliable, real-time data.
Diego Rosso, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine and lead project researcher, highlights the transformative potential of this approach: “By leveraging the strengths of both digital and physical twins, we can create a comprehensive model that accurately reflects real-world conditions. This enables us to optimize processes in ways that were previously unimaginable, ensuring that water reuse facilities can operate more sustainably and cost-effectively.”
The Future of Water Reuse
The successful completion of this project will serve as a proof of concept for the integration of digital and physical twins in water reuse operations. It will demonstrate that this hybrid approach can significantly enhance the modeling and optimization capabilities of full-scale facilities, leading to improved process efficiency and energy savings. Moreover, it will pave the way for broader adoption of digital twin technology in the water industry and beyond.
This hybrid modeling approach has far-reaching implications beyond just water reuse. It sets a precedent for how we can use advanced data analytics and modeling to address complex challenges in various environmental and industrial applications.
This research endeavor is one of NAWI’s 60+ research and development projects that aim to reduce the cost, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions of new water technologies. NAWI’s robust alliance, comprising 1,670+ members and 420+ partners in industry, academia, and government, fosters a global network of innovation. NAWI provides a range of opportunities for engagement, from applying for membership to the NAWI Alliance to volunteering as a Project Support Group advisor.
“Being part of the NAWI Alliance has been instrumental in advancing our research on hybrid modeling for water reuse,” said Nader Razaei, a project researcher and Postdoctoral Scholar at the Water-Energy Nexus Center at the University of California, Irvine. “The collaborative environment fostered by NAWI provides unparalleled access to resources, expertise, and a network of industry leaders and researchers. This support has enabled us to develop and refine our hybrid model, combining digital and physical twins, to create more accurate and reliable simulations. This, in turn, is paving the way for more efficient, sustainable, and resilient water reuse operations.”
Digital twins stand out as one of the most promising approaches to address the global water crisis. By demonstrating the practical benefits of this hybrid approach, the project not only aims to revolutionize water reuse operations but also sets a precedent for broader applications of digital twin technology. Digital twins, with their precise predictions and operational optimizations, hold the key to a more sustainable and efficient water future, reducing energy costs and promoting long-term sustainability. The successful integration of these technologies promises to usher in a new era of water resource management, ensuring safe and reliable water access for generations to come.
Author’s note: The views expressed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Energy or the US government.
NAWI is a public-private partnership that brings together a world-class team of industry and academic partners to examine the critical technical barriers and research needed to radically lower the cost and energy of desalination. NAWI is led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in collaboration with National Energy Technology Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and is funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office.
There are many more NAWI-supported research projects and innovators leading the charge for a circular economy through desalination and water supply research. NAWI provides several opportunities for participation, from applying for Alliance membership to volunteering to advise a project team as a Project Support Group member. Through relentless dedication to enhancing water accessibility, purity, and affordability, NAWI’s visionary research instills optimism for a future where access to clean water becomes a reality for all.
Project Partners: Brown and Caldwell; Glacier Technologies Int. Inc., Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL): Sally Ghanem, Alexander Melin, Kris Villez, Philip Bingham, Ryan Kerekes; Orange County Water District; Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County; University of California, Irvne (UCI): Brian Tarroja, Diego Rosso, Nader Rezaei, Imre Takacs.
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