709 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS Volume 21, 2010 Editor J. J. Klemeš, H. L. Lam, P. S. Varbanov Copyright © 2010, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., ISBN 978-88-95608-05-1 ISSN 1974-9791 DOI: 10.3303/CET1021119 Please cite this article as: Chipofya V., Avramenko Y. and Kraslawski A., (2010), Case-based design of Soche (Blantyre, Malawi) wastewater treatment plant, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 21, 709-714, DOI: 10.3303/CET1021119. Case-based Design of Soche (Blantyre, Malawi) Wastewater Treatment Plant Victor Chipofya 1 , Yuri Avramenko 2 , Andrzej Kraslawski * 1 Centre for Water, Sanitation, Health and Appropriate Technology Development (WASHTED), University of Malawi, The Polytechnic, P Bag 303, Blantyre 3, Malawi 2 Department of Chemical Technology, Lappeenranta University of Technology PO Box 20, FI-53851, Lappeenranta, Finland andrzej.Kraslawski@lut.fi This paper evaluates the applicability of case-based reasoning principles for the design of wastewater treatment facility in Blantyre, Malawi. The objective of the research was a comparison of the existing wastewater facility with the plant identified by the CBR system and suggestion of the eventual changes for the improvement. 1. Introduction Rising population, rapid urbanization, growing industrialization and the expanding agro industry, combined with pollution from untreated sewage and industrial effluents have severely stressed both water quality and its availability in many countries. Therefore an issue of primordial importance is ability to design wastewater treatment plants able to deal with the existing challenges. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of highly qualified wastewater treatment specialists makes these tasks even more difficult. The possibility of the re-use of design experience would create an opportunity for the efficient use of the existing human resources in construction of the wastewater treatment plants. The potentially applicable approach for re-use of design experience is case-based reasoning (CBR) The objective of the presented research is testing usefulness of CBR for the revamp of the existing wastewater treatment plant. The applicability of CBR has been assessed for the case of the wastewater facility existing in Blantyre, Malawi. 2. Data collection The study was conducted at the treatment facility located at the south-western end of Blantyre, Malawi. This works serves a physical catchment area of some 24 km 2 comprising the south-west residential area of the city, 30% of the influent to the works is from the industrial areas. The average dry weather flow rate for the plant is 5,573 m 3 /d. The works is a principal tanker reception centre for latrine and septic tank emptyings. On the average, about six tankers are received per day, totaling approximately 36 m 3 /d. To monitor the facility operation, data was collected through site visits and a desk study which was based on the work by Kuyeli (2007). In (Kuyeli, 2007) sampling was done in the months of October to November, 2005 for the dry