Improved Sludge Dewaterability for Sequential Ozonation – Aerobic Treatment

Chemical treatment processes such as ozonation have mostly been considered as an efficient way for bio-solids minimization. The improvement of sludge dewatering was more a welcoming side-effect in these sequential processes. However, sometimes the loaded ozone dose to the sludge has a negative effect on dewaterability. This work address the most important issue found — the effect of ozone on sludge dewaterability in a single ozonation processes as well as in a sequential ozonation biological processes. It was found that the maximum sludge dewaterability was achieved with an ozone dose of 0.05 gO₃/gTSS. This value was found to be less than the required ozone dosage that leads to sludge disintegration. However, it was observed that the sequential ozone and aerobic treatment allows further strong improvement of dewatering efficiencies.     

An energy evaluation of coupling nutrient removal from wastewater with algal biomass production

Recently, several life cycle analyses of algal biodiesel from virtual production facilities have outlined the potential environmental benefits and energetic balance of the process. There are a wide range of assumptions that have been utilized for these calculations, including the addition of fertilizers and carbon dioxide to achieve high algal yields in open ponds. This paper presents an energy balance of microalgal production in open ponds coupled with nutrient removal from wastewater. Actual microalgal yields and nutrient removal rates were obtained from four pilot-scale reactors (2500 gallons each) fed with wastewater effluent from a conventional activated sludge process for 6 months, and the data was used to estimate an energy balance for treating the total average 12 million gallons per day processed by the wastewater treatment plant. Since one of the most energy-intensive steps is the dewatering of algal cultures, several thickening and dewatering processes were compared. This analysis also includes the energy offset from removing nutrients with algal reactors rather than the biological nutrient removal processes typically utilized in municipal wastewater treatment. The results show that biofuel production is energetically favorable for open pond reactors utilizing wastewater as a nutrient source, even without an energy credit for nutrient removal. The energy content of algal biomass was also considered as an alternate to lipid extraction and biodiesel production. Direct combustion of algal biomass may be a more viable energy source than biofuel production, especially when the lipid content of dry biomass (10% in this field experiment) is lower than the high values reported in lab-scale reactors (50–60%).     

Effect of Hydrodynamics During Crystallization on Mechanical Dewatering of Salicylic Acid

Mechanical cake dewatering is always desired to reduce the load on thermal dewatering (drying). Any change in the upstream process such as crystallization can have a significant influence on the filtration as well as cake dewatering characteristics. The present study deals with the effect of hydrodynamics (mixing intensity) during salicylic acid crystallization on the air dewatering characteristics in the subsequent pressure filtration. The mixing conditions during crystallization were varied by using three different types of agitators (anchor impeller [AI], curved blade turbine [CBT], and bar turbine [BT]) and by varying the speed of agitation. The effect of operating pressure and dewatering time on the final moisture content of the cake was also studied.

The crystal properties (crystal size and size distribution) were found to vary with the mixing intensity, which further influenced the cake dewatering kinetics as well as the residual moisture content. An AI, which is a laminar flow impeller, produced crystals with a wide size distribution and higher mean particle size, which resulted in cake with high porosity and hence higher moisture content. The high porosity (as well as high cake permeability) caused early air breakthrough, which resulted in ineffective dewatering of cake. Therefore, in this case the residual moisture in cake was found to be higher (27%) even at higher dewatering pressure (1.5 bar gauge) and longer dewatering time (90 s). A BT creates high turbulence during mixing and produced crystals with a relatively narrow size distribution and lower mean particle size, which provided low-porosity cakes. Such cakes could be efficiently dewatered and the final cake moisture content was found to decrease to about 15%, a significant improvement in the filterability of the cake. The dewatering data were modeled according to the correlation between irreducible cake saturation and capillary number for predicting the cake dewatering characteristics (residual moisture as well as dewatering kinetics) and the results were compared with the experimental data.     

Effect of Operating Parameters on the Effectiveness of Electric Field-Enhanced Separations

The purpose of this work is to summarize our latest research results about constant-current electroosmotic dewatering (EOD). The Terzaghi-Voigt combined model is used for the analysis of EOD of various solid-liquid systems by considering the creep deformation of the material. Bentonite clay, KC-flock, zinc oxide, and some of their mixtures are used as experimental materials. It is assumed that the electroosmotic pressure gradient E _pg and modified consolidation coefficient C _e of the materials are constant. The relation between the ratio of creep deformation to total deformation B and the modified consolidation coefficient C _e is determined and compared with previous observations for the case of mechanical expression. The effectiveness of dewatering is described depending on operating parameters such as preconsolidation pressure, material composition, electric current density, and total solid volume per unit cross-sectional area. The model is verified by comparing the calculations with experimental data.     

LAB-SCALE IMPULSE DRYING EXPERIMENTS WITH EXTENSION TO HIGHER IMPULSE

Impulse drying uses high temperature and high impulse in the press section of the paper machine. The technique can increase the water removal rate and thereby minimize the size of the dryer section or alternatively increase production capacity. Additionally, the technique improves paper properties compared to conventional wet pressing. This paper contains a discussion of the value associated with extending the press impulse in impulse drying. Experiments were conducted in a lab-scale press simulator. Experiments with 150 g/m² liner were conducted with four different press impulses, 160, 260, 360 and 450 kPa s. The impulse was varied by changing the dwell time between the pressurization and the depressurization phase. It was shown that increasing the nip length and press load beyond conventional shoe press limits gave noteworthy press dryness and sheet strength advantages. The impulse drying experiments were also compared with single and double-felted wet pressing experiments.

     

DEWATERING OF HAMBURG'S DREDGED MATERIAL BY ELECTROACOUSTIC DEWATERING

Separation of liquids from a fine particle suspension plays an important role in many industrial processes. In the last few years, a number of technologies have been developed for the separation of slurries with coarse particle suspensions and intermediate particle sizes. However, separation of fine particles from these suspensions can be difficult and prohibitively costly. Battelle has developed a solid-liquid separation technology that utilizes difference in electrokinetic/acoustic properties to enhance the conventional solid-liquid separation techniques such as vacuum filters and presses. The present paper describes the application of this electroacoustic dewatering technology to Hamburg dredged material.     

Electro-Kinetic Technology as a Low-Cost Method for Dewatering Food By-Product

Increasing volumes of food waste, intense environmental awareness, and stringent legislation have imposed increased demands upon conventional food waste management. Food by-products that were once considered to be without value are now being utilized as reusable materials, fuels, and energy in order to reduce waste. One major barrier to the valorization of food by-products is their high moisture content. This has brought about the necessity of dewatering food waste for any potential re-use for certain disposal options. A laboratory system for experimentally characterizing electro-kinetic dewatering of food by-products was evaluated. The bench scale system, which is an augmented filter press, was used to investigate the dewatering at constant voltage. Five food by-products (brewer's spent grain, cauliflower trimmings, mango peel, orange peel, and melon peel) were studied. The results indicated that electro-kinetic dewatering combined with mechanical dewatering can reduce the percentage of moisture from 78% to 71% for brewer's spent grain, from 77% to 68% for orange peel, from 80% to 73% for mango peel, from 91% to 74% for melon peel, and from 92% to 80% for cauliflower trimmings. The total moisture reduction showed a correlation with electrical conductivity (R² = 0.89). The energy consumption of every sample was evaluated and was found to be up to 60 times more economical compared to thermal processing.     

Sewage Sludge Dewatering Process Using Liquefied Dimethyl Ether as Solid Fuel

This article describes the dewatering of sewage sludge using liquefied dimethyl ether (DME), which clarified the effect of sludge type and its particle size. Changes in the heating value of the dewatered sludge were also examined. In addition, the change in dewaterability upon reuse of the liquefied DME was investigated experimentally.

Regardless of the nature of the sludge, its dewatering behavior was similar. The amount of dewatered water could be increased by decreasing the diameter of the sludge cake. Complete drying of the sludge cake via DME dewatering resulted in retention of approximately 96% of the heating value (17.7 MJ/kg-sludge) of the original sludge cake dry base (18.4 MJ/kg db). The DME could be recovered after extraction, and reuse experiments showed that liquefied DME dewatering performance was unchanged after five reuses.     

Experimental analysis on a novel low-temperature vacuum drying with induced nucleation technique for dewatering stingless bees honey

Honey spoilage is a major problem in storing stingless bee honey. A new method of honey dewatering was developed using a low-temperature vacuum drying with induced nucleation technique. The research’s objective is to investigate the performance of this method in reducing honey’s water content. Two different dewatering temperatures were applied until honey’s water content reached below 20%. The honey’s chemical compound before–after dewatering from one of the samples was tested using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis. The dewatering rate improves significantly with higher temperature. The NMR analysis result found no changes in chemical compound before–after experiment except for ethanol.     

Advances and Challenges on Algae Harvesting and Drying

Biodiesel production from algae offers a promising prospect for practical applications among the still developing biofuel technologies. The fact that algae are capable of producing much more yield provides an edge over other types of biofuel. Though algal biofuel research is still developing and its practical application is yet to be ascertained, promising work on laboratory- and pilot-scale algae harvesting systems has been extensively reported. Because algae harvesting and drying are vital elements in biofuel production, recent advances on various algae harvesting, dewatering, and drying technologies are reviewed and discussed. Challenges and prospects of algae harvesting and drying are also outlined.