Whether you’re looking to dewater solids for land application, storage, or incineration, mechanical dewatering equipment can help you reduce your sludge disposal costs and improve the quality of your biosolids.
Sludge dewatering methods are based on the nature and characteristics of your sludge and can be as simple as a reed bed or as complex as a filter press. Here are some of the top reasons to have mechanical dewatering equipment for aquatic vegetation:
Reduce Water Pollution
Water pollution is a serious problem, especially where wastewater (sewage) is discharged to aquifers or natural bodies of water. Water is polluted when it contains enough impurities to make it unfit for drinking, swimming, or fishing. Sewage treatment, which includes dewatering, is a critical component of wastewater pollution control. This process removes sludge (residual sludge from a wastewater treatment plant or fecal sludge from on-site sanitation) before it reaches aquifers and natural bodies of water, such as rivers, lakes, and oceans.
Reduce Maintenance
Dewatering equipment is often simple to operate and requires minimum maintenance. The less time operators spend repairing, troubleshooting, and restarting equipment, the more time they can spend optimizing other areas of the wastewater treatment process. Mechanical dewatering equipment is essential for aquatic vegetation management and can be installed at an existing treatment plant or temporarily during a facility modernization project. Using equipment already designed and tested saves costs, reduces time to obtain approvals and documentation, and eliminates the need for extensive design work.
Save Energy
There are several ways to save energy in dewatering operations. Properly instrumenting a system’s product flow, moisture levels, and energy consumption can yield substantial savings. There are several methods for mechanical dewatering, including centrifuges, filter presses, drying beds, sludge lagoons, and gravity and low-pressure devices. Each has its own performance specifications and design considerations. For example, belt press and centrifuge dewatering equipment generally have a smaller footprint than geosynthetic dewatering tubes but require an adequate power supply and a disposal option for the resulting filter cake. These systems also tend to use a lot of chemical conditioners (coagulants and flocculants) for effective solids removal and handling.
Reduce Sludge Disposal
Sludge disposal can be a major problem for wastewater treatment plants. Often, sludge is buried or spread on land where it can be used as soil conditioner and fertilizer. A sludge dewatering system can reduce sludge volume by 50 percent, saving money and improving the environment. It can also eliminate the need for a sludge storage tank in a treatment plant. Mechanical dewatering separates sludge into solid and liquid components for waste minimization, typically with belt filter presses, centrifuges, or chamber filter presses. The solid and the liquid parts of sludge may still contain pathogens and pollutants, so it is crucial to treat these separately.
One of the simplest dewatering methods is using sludge drying beds, where digested sludge is spread on a bed of sand. Water drains off the sludge through gravity and evaporates, leaving dry solids. This method works well in warmer, dry climates.
Reduce Odor
Dewatering sludge (residual sludge from wastewater treatment plants or fecal sludge from on-site sanitation) removes water from the sludge, making it easier to handle and less expensive to transport, compost, incinerate or dispose of in a landfill. Mechanical dewatering methods typically involve centrifuges, belt presses, and filter presses that separate liquid from solid sludge parts. These processes do not treat the sludge; solid and liquid portions still contain pathogens and pollutants.
