Case Studies and Success Stories of AI Implementation in Wastewater Treatment

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been emerging as a powerful and novel technology to address environmental issues. Wastewater treatment (WWT) plays a significant role in the sustainable development and reusage of water resources. It is indispensable for safeguarding public health and protecting the environment and finds extensive application in both industrial and agricultural sectors. In recent years, AI models have rapidly gained significant recognition in wastewater treatment by optimizing processes, predicting efficiency, reducing human error, and evaluating performance to provide more economically viable solutions for wastewater treatment (WWT). AI-based models have been utilized in the determination of efficiency parameters, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD) levels, removal of heavy metals and contaminants like organic dyes, etc. Fuzzy Logic Algorithms (FL), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), and Genetic Algorithms (GA) are three fundamental AI basic models used in wastewater treatment. We herein, present the wide array of bibliometric analyses (1995–2024) comprising the use case of artificial intelligence (AI) technology for wastewater treatment (WWT). This chapter encompasses the potential future perspectives of applications of AI, mainly considering the four aspects i.e. economy, technology, management, and wastewater reuse. Moreover, it addresses the environmental setbacks i.e. pollutant removal, water reuse, and cost reduction for complex practical applications.