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Sludge conditioning
An overview of sludge conditioning − chemical and thermal
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Thermal conditioning processes can be employed to improve the efficiency of both dewatering and anaerobic digestion and are usually based on either wet air oxidation or hydrothermal treatment. This results in partial degradation of the sludge solids, making the resulting material more biodegradable as well as more dewaterable than the untreated sludge.
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Introduction to sludge conditioning
Thickening and dewatering processes often need pre-treatment (conditioning) to help separate the water from the solids
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Thermal sludge conditioning
Thermal processes are used to condition sludges upstream of anaerobic digestion as well as pre-treating sludge for dewatering
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The CAMBI hydrothermal sludge treatment process
Video demonstrating the CAMBI THP and anaerobic digestion process to produce biogas.
Heating features and blogs
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Co-processing of sewage digestate by hydrothermal carbonisation
Hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) can be used to co-process anaerobic digestion (AD) digestate and lignocellulosic (or plant-based) feedstocks to improve the the hydrochar product quality. This AD waste co-processing route has been studied at bench scale. Read article
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Conditioning
Conditioning is the pretreatment of sludge upstream of thickening and dewatering to promote solid-liquid separation
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Thickening
Thickening processes concentrate the sludge by removing part of the free water, such that the product can still be pumped
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Dewatering
Dewatering processes mechanically remove a significant proportion of the sludge water to produce a 15-45% cake product
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Drying
In sludge drying the sludge moisture is removed as water vapour by heating, generating a pelleted or powdered product
More process and operation topics…
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Sludge stabilisation
Sludge stabilisation − alkaline stabilisation, lime and solids dosing, plus anaerobic and aerobic digestion
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Thermochemical processes
Thermochemical methods are used to either significantly reduce the sludge solids content or pre-treat sludge upstream of AD
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Sludge quality
Sludge is the main waste stream from the treatment of wastewater