Consolidation dewatering and centrifugal sedimentation of flocculated activated sludge

Experimental study of fry-drying and melting system for industrial wastewater sludge

In South Korea, ocean dumping of organic sludges has been prohibited by the London Convention and by Korean regulations. Therefore, the Government of South Korea has sought an alternative process for the disposal of organic sludges. Recently, the combined fry-drying and melting system has been recognized as an efficient way to utilize the energy content of organic industrial sludge. Three kinds of fry-dried industrial sludges (obtained from industrial sites DG, DJ and GM), which had average heating value of 20,470kJ/kg and less than 5% water content, were tested. Unlike sewage sludge, industrial sludge contains high concentrations of heavy metals and thus cannot be directly utilized as refuse-derived fuel. The dried sludges were melted in a furnace and then rapidly cooled to form vitrified slags; the vitrification of SiO2 securely encapsulates hazardous heavy metals within the crystalline structure of the slag. To evaluate the hazard of vitrified slag, the heavy metal elution concentration was analyzed. Following vitrification, Hg, Cd, Cr(+6), HCN and Pb concentrations were not detectable, whereas Cu concentration decreased from 26.78mg/L to 0.42mg/L in DJ sludge, from 27.10mg/L to 0.13mg/L in DG and from 49.47mg/L to 0.047mg/L in GM sludge.

Ultra scale-down device to predict dewatering levels of solids recovered in a continuous scroll decanter centrifuge

During centrifugation operation, the major challenge in the recovery of extracellular proteins is the removal of the maximum liquid entrapped within the spaces between the settled solids-dewatering level. The ability of the scroll decanter centrifuge (SDC) to process continuously large amounts of feed material with high concentration of solids without the need for resuspension of feeds, and also to achieve relatively high dewatering, could be of great benefit for future use in the biopharmaceutical industry. However, for reliable prediction of dewatering in such a centrifuge, tests using the same kind of equipment at pilot-scale are required, which are time consuming and costly. To alleviate the need of pilot-scale trials, a novel USD device, with reduced amounts of feed (2 mL) and to be used in the laboratory, was developed to predict the dewatering levels of a SDC. To verify USD device, dewatering levels achieved were plotted against equivalent compression (Gtcomp ) and decanting (Gtdec ) times, obtained from scroll rates and feed flow rates operated at pilot-scale, respectively. The USD device was able to successfully match dewatering trends of the pilot-scale as a function of both Gtcomp and Gtdec , particularly for high cell density feeds, hence accounting for all key variables that influenced dewatering in a SDC. In addition, it accurately mimicked the maximum dewatering performance of the pilot-scale equipment. Therefore the USD device has the potential to be a useful tool at early stages of process development to gather performance data in the laboratory thus minimizing lengthy and costly runs with pilot-scale SDC.

The evaporative drying of sludge by immersion in hot oil: Effects of oil type and temperature

We investigated the evaporative drying by immersion in hot oil (EDIHO) method for drying sludge. This involved heating oil to a temperature higher than that needed for moisture to be evaporated from the sludge by turbulent heat and mass transfer. We fry-dried sewage and leather plant sludge for 10 min in each of four different oils (waste engine, waste cooking, refined waste, and B-C heavy) and three different temperatures (140 degrees C, 150 degrees C, and 160 degrees C). Drying efficiency was found to be greater for higher temperatures. However, giving consideration to energy efficiency we suggest that the optimal temperature for fry-drying sludge is 150 degrees C. At 150 degrees C, the water content of sewage sludge reduced from 78.9% to between 1.5% (with waste cooking oil) and 3.8% (with waste engine oil). The reduction in water content for leather plant sludge fry-dried at 150 degrees C was from 81.6% to between 1% (with waste cooking oil) and 6.5% (with refined waste oil). The duration of the constant rate-drying period was also influenced by the type of oil used: refined waste oil>waste engine oil>B-C heavy oil>waste cooking oil. The duration at 150 degrees C with waste cooking oil was 3 min for sewage sludge and 2 min for leather plant sludge. It is likely that the drying characteristics of oil are influenced by its thermal properties, including its specific heat, and molecular weight.

In situ determination of solidosity profiles during activated sludge electrodewatering

Two non-invasive techniques were evaluated for the on-line measurement of sludge solidosity profiles during both pressure and electrodewatering operations. In a first approach, a radioactive tracer adsorbed onto the sludge solids was monitored by a gamma camera. Although this technique appeared very flexible in use, the lack of resolution highly limited its usefulness for (electro)dewatering experiments. Improvement in gamma camera resolution by the development of new detectors might, however, increase the future applicability of this technique. In a second technique, nuclear magnetic resonance measurements on a specially designed electrodewatering unit were made. Hereby, reliable on-line measurements of the solidosity profiles of activated sludge during electrodewatering could be made, with a resolution of less than 1mm. Thus, the mechanisms of electroosmotic- and pressure-driven cake dewatering could be illustrated. Given the measurement time required for measuring one sludge profile, both techniques appeared mainly suited for slowly varying processes, such as activated sludge expression, and not for fast changing processes, such as the initial phases of sludge filtration.