Impact of mechanical history on sludge rheological properties: Role of the organic content

The rheological behavior is known to be of great interest in sludge treatment, but the material complexity induces strong measurement difficulties. The literature highlights two characteristics deeply impacting sludge rheological properties and their characterization: Thixotropic behavior and organic matter (Seyssiecq et al., 2003; Eshtiaghi et al., 2013), both being related to each other. Indeed, by looking at how thixotropy affects elastic modulus and yield stress with different mechanical histories at different organic matter ratios, it turns out that the higher the organic matter, the higher the thixotropic behavior.

How to avoid evaporation during rheological measurements of dewatered pasty sludge at high temperature

Controlling the residence time in paddle dryers and the drying efficiency imply the knowledge of rheological behaviour of highly concentrated and pasty sludge and its temperature dependency. However, because of perturbing effects such as evaporation, measurements are not fully representative of intrinsic sludge properties. Classical techniques usually considered in the literature for evaporation control are not efficient at high temperatures. This work gives a method to control the evaporation at high temperature that can be used with any commercial rheometer. The configuration concept is to prevent water loss by limiting the contact between the sheared sludge and the environment. This configuration allows preventing evaporation up to 80 °C at least during 2 h. Its efficiency is confirmed at different total solid (TS) contents ranging from 20 to 47 wt.%.

Impact of rheological properties of substrate on anaerobic digestion and digestate dewaterability: New insights through rheological and physico-chemical interaction

Mesophilic batch anaerobic digesters fed by different substrates were set up to identify the role of substrate rheology in anaerobic digestion performance while operating below the toxic level. Five substrates of different rheological behaviour but at the same amount of organic matters were prepared by addition of different amount of an inert material (0, 0.03, 0.07, 0.11, and 0.20 g) per g of waste activated sludge (WAS). To gain a comprehensive insight, the interactive relationship between substrate rheology, physico-chemical properties and biogas production as well as digestate dewaterability was investigated. The results proved that better access of microorganisms to organic matters improved the digester performance and led to 19.29% and 12.5% increase in biogas yield and VS removal efficiency, respectively. Moreover, the statistical analysis showed that consistency index and loss modulus of sludge could be employed as promising indications for biogas yield while yield stress could predict dewaterability of digestate as far as the other physico-chemical properties remained unchanged. During digestion measurement of consistency index and loss modulus of digestate could be performed as a reliable tool to monitor biogas production.

Experimental rheological procedure adapted to pasty dewatered sludge up to 45 % dry matter

Wastewater sludge are characterized by complex rheological properties, strongly dependent on solids concentration and temperature. These properties are required for process hydrodynamic modelling but their correct measurement is often challenging at high solids concentrations. This is especially true to model the hydrodynamic of dewatered sludge during drying process where solids content (TS) increases with residence time. Indeed, until now, the literature mostly focused on the rheological characterization of sludge at low and moderate TS (between 4 and 8%). Limited attention was paid to pasty and highly concentrated sludge mainly because of the difficulties to carry out the measurements. Results reproducibility appeared to be poor and thus may not be always fully representative of the effective material properties. This work demonstrates that reproducible results can be obtained by controlling cracks and fractures which always take place in classical rotational rheometry. In that purpose, a well-controlled experimental procedure has been developed, allowing the exact determination of the surface effectively sheared. This surface is calculated by scattering a classical stress sweep with measurements at a reference strain value. The implementation of this procedure allows the correct determination of solid-like characteristics from 20 to 45% TS but also shows that pasty and highly concentrated sludge highlight normal forces caused by dilatancy. Moreover the surface correction appears to be independent of TS in the studied range.

Electrical and rheological properties of sewage sludge--Impact of the solid content

Sludge treatment is a multistep process during which sludge is mixed, pumped, thickened and dewatered. The total solid content (TSC) increases from a few grams to more than a hundred grams per liter and as underlined by the existing literature, rheological characteristics are key criteria for sludge management. However, these characteristics remain difficult to be determined in-situ and professionals are looking for alternative techniques to evaluate them. In that context, the potential of electrical measurements has been highlighted (Dieudé-Fauvel et al., 2009, 2014). This paper investigates the additional benefits of correlating both rheological and electrical properties for sludge characterization within the range of 1-23%TSC. On a rheological point of view, results are consistent with previous literature. In parallel, electrical impedance spectroscopy allowed us to define an equivalent electrical circuit to model the sludge electrical signature. Results highlight that the circuit parameters follow two regimes according to the range of solid content, similarly to rheological properties. This work opens new insights about sludge characterization and treatment monitoring.

Relationship between electrical and rheological properties of sewage sludge - Impact of temperature

Rheological properties are key criteria for sewage sludge management but are difficult to determine in situ. Because the literature often links rheological characteristics to surface charges of particles that interact, the underlying electrostatic interactions could be key characteristics explaining the rheological behavior of sludge. This paper analyzed the impact of temperature on both rheological and electrical properties. Both liquid and solid properties appear to be related to electrical impedance spectroscopy measurements because they obey the same relationships with the same activation energies. Infinite viscosity follows an Arrhenius law with temperature, whereas the storage modulus shows VTF (Vogel-Tamman-Fulcher) behavior. Sludge electrical behavior can be modeled by an equivalent 2-branch parallel circuit whose respective impedances follow Arrhenius and VTF relationships. More interestingly, resistors are proportional to (dissipative) viscous characteristics, whereas capacitances are proportional to the (storage) elastic modulus. These similarities and relationships underlie the same interactions that seem to be involved in both rheological and electrical properties. These interdependences are quite logical but open new insights into sludge characterization.

Comparative analysis of anaerobically digested wastes flow properties

The flow curve of anaerobically digested wastes from different origins was determined through rheological measurements. Regardless of their origin, samples can be divided into two families: simple non-Newtonian liquids well modelled by basic power law below 10%DC and viscoelastic liquids with a yield stress, well modelled by a Herschel-Bulkley model above. In all the cases, the rheological behaviour is driven by both the organic content and the volatile fraction (organic content/solid content), indicating that anaerobic digestion tends to smooth the rheological characteristics of organic wastes, whichever their origins.

Modelling the rheological properties of sludge during anaerobic digestion in a batch reactor by using electrical measurements

Anaerobic digestion is a significant process leading to biogas production and waste management. Despite this double interest, professionals still face a lack of efficient tools to monitor and manage the whole procedure. This is especially true for rheological properties of the material inside the reactor, which are of major importance for anaerobic digestion management. However, rheological properties can hardly be determined in-situ and it would be very helpful to determine indicators of their evolution. To solve this problem, this paper investigates the evolution of sewage sludge rheological and electrical properties during the anaerobic digestion in a batch reactor. We especially focus on apparent viscosity and complex impedance, measured by electrical impedance spectroscopy. Both of them can be modelled by a linear combination of raw sludge and inoculum properties, weighted by time-dependent coefficients. Thus, by determining digested sludge electrical signature, it is possible to obtain those coefficients and model sludge apparent viscosity. This work offers many theoretical and practical prospects.

The rheological behaviour of anaerobic digested sludge

Producing biogas energy from the anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludge is one of the most challenging tasks facing engineers, because they are dealing with vast quantities of fundamentally scientifically poorly understood and unpredictable materials; while digesters need constant flow properties to operate efficiently. An accurate estimate of sludge rheological properties is required for the design and efficient operation of digestion, including mixing and pumping. In this paper, we have determined the rheological behaviour of digested sludge at different concentrations, and highlighted common features. At low shear stress, digested sludge behaves as a linear viscoelastic solid, but shear banding can occur and modify the apparent behaviour. At very high shear stress, the behaviour fits well to the Bingham model. Finally, we show that the rheological behaviour of digested sludge is qualitatively the same at different solids concentrations, and depends only on the yield stress and Bingham viscosity, both parameters being closely linked to the solids concentration.

The preparation of synthetic sludge for lab testing

For carrying out sludge lab-scale tests, and interlaboratory trials for standards validation, the availability of samples with "certified and constant" characteristics is required. When "dried sludge" samples cannot be used, problems arise because (i) most fresh sludge characteristics change with storage time, also because some preservation practices are not applicable or their effects unknown, (ii) some fresh sludge characteristics are strongly affected by handling, and (iii) fresh sludge requires particular precautions and authorization for transportation. This means that using "fresh sludge" samples cannot guarantee reliability and reproducibility of results, so a valid alternative consists in testing "synthetic suspensions" samples to be on-site prepared. This should also give the possibility to compare results obtained in different places and times. Within this framework, Task Group 3 (TG3) of Working Group 1 (WG1) of Technical Committee 308 (TC308) of European Standardization Committee (CEN) undertook the preparation of a Technical Report dealing with the preparation of synthetic suspensions, both inorganic and organic, in repeatable conditions, able to describe the behaviour of a real sludge. This paper discusses a proposal for ingredients and modalities to prepare such synthetic suspensions that will be systematically tested in already planned lab experiments to define an optimal recipe.

Abrupt transition from viscoelastic solidlike to liquidlike behavior in jammed materials

Using a new rheometrical technique, which makes it possible to determine both the velocity field in steady state and the strain field in the very first instants of the flow, we show that, beyond a critical deformation, typical pasty materials (a foam and a polymeric gel) turn abruptly from a viscoelastic solidlike behavior to a steady liquidlike behavior at a shear rate larger than a critical value.