Sustainable Strategies for Coking Wastewater Treatment: Build the Wastewater─Diurnal Temperature─Energy Policy Nexus

Sustainable energy management in wastewater treatment plants is inseparable from a comprehensive consideration of environmental temperature variations and energy policies. Most researchers have not noticed that diurnal temperature variations, peak–valley electricity pricing policy, and the greenhouse gas emission factors of thermal power generation exhibit nearly identical peak–valley fluctuation trends. This study combines these three factors with the oxic-hydrolytic and heterotrophic denitrification-oxic (OHO) coking wastewater treatment process and establishes an OHO dynamics process model for coking wastewater treatment. Through the optimization of operating parameters (flow management and aeration control) and process upgrades (the Sequencing Batch Fluidized Bed OHO process), three scenarios analyses were conducted to achieve synchronous energy saving (28.4%), cost reduction (46.5%), and carbon emission reduction (22.5%). The significant differences in energy consumption and operational costs across scenarios largely depend on the rational arrangement of the aeration process. In addition, we have expanded the technological dimensions in the water industry by comprehensively considering sustainable management solutions that account for natural temperature variations and energy policies. The alignment and optimization of process editing, environmental and energy policies, societal production and living habits will be a significant direction for energy-saving reforms in the future water industry.