Model of a drinking water treatment process and the variables involved using Coloured Petri Nets

Abstract

A model that represents the behavior of a critical system or process, such as the drinking water treatment process, is vital for the evaluation of new procedures or their optimization without affecting the real system or risking the population, avoiding economic losses. Due to the complexity in the dynamics of drinking water treatment plants, the use of Coloured Petri Nets is recommended to model the behavior of the variables involved in the process. In this context, this work presents a structured procedure that allows obtaining a model considering a dynamic driven by the occurrence of discrete events and that generates useful information to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of new operating strategies. To evaluate this proposal, a model of the drinking water treatment process of Puerto Mallarino located in Cali, Colombia was developed, modeling both the stages of the purification process and the approximate behavior of the variables involved under the assumption that changes only respond to the intensity of the rainy season.