Task Scheduling–Review of Algorithms and Analysis of Potential Use in a Biological Wastewater Treatment Plant

The idea of task scheduling is to increase the efficiency of a system by minimising wasted time, evenly loading machines, or maximising the throughput of machines. Moreover, the use of appropriate scheduling algorithms often leads to a reduction in the energy costs of the process. Task scheduling problems are found in a variety of industrial areas, and their scale changes significantly depending on the problem. This review shows the extent to which task scheduling methods are applied in industry. This paper presents methods and algorithms for solving task scheduling problems. In addition, an analysis of the possibility of using task scheduling methods to improve the efficiency of biological wastewater treatment plants was also conducted. This approach is based on the assumption of a balanced workload for multiple reactors. Analysing the case study of a wastewater treatment plant in Swarzewo in Northern Poland is applied.