4 Vital Steps for Wastewater Sludge Treatment Procedure
While getting in touch with an expert supplier of sludge treatment solutions will help you get the right equipment. It is essential to know about the essential steps that are involved in the sludge treatment procedure.
Continue to read till the end to know about four steps that are involved in the sludge treatment process.
1. Sludge Thickening
The first step includes the thickening process where the sludge is thickened in a gravity thickening equipment for reducing the sludge’s overall volume. The sludge contains high concentration of water and other elements that can make the handling process difficult.
However, with the step of sludge thickening, the higher concentration of other materials are extracted. Alternatively, dissolved air flotation method is also seen to be used that thickens the sludge with the use of air bubbles.
The flotation method enables the solid mass to float to the top which then is removed carefully.
2. Sludge Digestion
After amassing as much sludge as possible from the sludge thickening process, the next step involves the sludge digestion process. It is a biological procedure where all the organic materials present in the sludge are effectively decomposed and transformed into stable substances.
This process as well helps in lessening the total solid’s mass while simultaneously destroying any pathogen element present, this also helps to enable dewatering. The sludge digestion step is carried out in two phases.
3. Dewatering
Now that the pathogens are destroyed in the sludge digestion step, the dewatering step can be carried out effectively. In the most obvious scenario, the dewatered sludge contains a considerably large amount of water.
Almost 70% water content is present despite the sludge being in a solidified state. This is why it is essential to dry out the sludge and dewater it before disposal. The most common way to execute dewatering is with the use of sludge-drying beds.
However, this application is highly time-consuming as it can take weeks for the entire process to get completed. There are many wastewaters management plants that are implementing solid-liquid separation devices for expediting this tedious process.
In fact, the process of centrifugation is being preferred by industries to carry out dewatering steps as it offers shorter duration and reduced cost performance.
4. Disposal
Last but not the least, the disposal step is performed once all the sludge is dewatered. The sludge is disposed of typically in a sanitary landfill where it is buried underground.
Sometimes, the disposal process may even include using this dewatered sludge as fertilizers based on the sludge’s chemical composition. However, if the sludge is extremely toxic in nature, then neither it is buried nor it is reused, instead, it is incinerated and transformed into ash.
Typically, the sewage or wastewater treatment plant sludge is treated by implementing a standard plan of action. Still there are various factors that are considered prior to selecting a treatment plan.