Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Simple dehydration technique using drainage string to treat drinking water sludge for utilization as geomaterial

  • SPECIAL FEATURE: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Material Cycles in Construction Works
  • Published:
Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The utilization of drinking water sludge (DWS) as geomaterial is important to reduce its volume that needs to be disposed of and to increase environmental sustainability. In this regard, a simple dehydration technique using drainage strings was applied to DWS in laboratory and field conditions. From the laboratory test, it was confirmed that the sludge in initial water content of 570% was dewatered below the liquid limit of 300% for a week. From the field test, the raw sludge was dewatered, and it was found that the simple vertical drain method accelerates the dewatering rate of DWS smoothly compared to the control test. The cone index test was performed on the DWS mixed with sandy soil for utilization as geomaterial. It is clarified that the initial water content of the DWS should be reduced for decreasing the sand mixing fraction and improvement cost. The environmental effect on utilization of DWS was assessed based on CO2 emission in LCA. The result showed that the DWS by the simple vertical drain method and mixing sandy soil has the CO2 emission less than 1/5 of that of belt filter press with cement mixing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Phuong N, Weiwei D, Yan Z, Yue L, Ismael E (2021) Properties of mortar incorporating untreated and treated drinking water treatment sludge. Constr Build Mater 205:122558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.122558

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Yue L, Yan Z, Christopher W, Alexandra K, Phuong N, Danda L, Gujie Q, Lei W (2020) Recycling drinking water treatment sludge into eco-concrete blocks with CO2 curing: durability and leachability. Sci Total Environ 746:141182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Samuel D, John L, Wengui L, Guangcheng L (2019) Progress in manufacture and properties of construction materials incorporating water treatment sludge: a review. Resour Conserv Recycl 145:148–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/jresconrec.2019.02.032

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Gastaldini A, Hengen M, Gastaldini M, do Amaral F, Antolini M, Coletto T (2015) The use of water treatment plant sludge ash as a mineral addition. Construct Build Mater. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.07.038

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Maiden P, Hearm M, Boysen R, Cheir P, Warnecke M, Jackson W (2015). Alum sludge re-use, investigation (1000S-42) prepared by GHD and Centre for Green Chemistry (Monash University) for the smart water fund. Victoria, ACTEW Water & Seawater, Melbourne, Australia.

  6. Evuti A, Lawal M (2011) Recovery of coagulants from water work sludge: a review. Adv Appl Sci Res 2(6):410–417

    Google Scholar 

  7. Keeley J, Jarvis P, Judd S (2014) Coagulants recovery from water treatment residuals: a review of applicable technologies. Crit Rev Environ Sci Techno 44:2675–2719

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Qiao X, Min Z, Hong Y, Mengjia L, Teng W, Yiqie D, Haobo H (2018) Improving the dewaterability of sewage sludge using rice husk and Fe2+- sodium persulfate oxidation. ACS Sustain Chem Eng 6:872–881. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b03227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Elbaz A, Aboulfotoh A, ElGohary E, Reham M (2020) Review classification of sludge drying beds SDB (conventional sand drying beds CSDB, wedge-wire, solar, and vacuum assisted and paved drying beds PDB). J Mater Environ Sci 11:593–608

    Google Scholar 

  10. Flemmy S, Omine K, Zhang Z (2019) Soft clay improvement technique by dewatering and dewatering sandy soil. Int J Geomate 17:9–16. https://doi.org/10.21660/2019.63.03627

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ranjit T, Praful P, Sujit S, Bhushan C (2019) Prefabrication vertical drain for soft consolidation. https://www.research.net/publication/330899780. Assessed 4 August 2021

  12. Mehrdadi N, John S, Nasrabadi T, Hoveid H (2007) Application of solar energy for drying of sludge from pharmaceutical industrial wastewater and probable reuse. Int J Environ Res 1(1):42–48

    Google Scholar 

  13. Raquel T, Marques da C (2017) Evaluation of dewatering of sewage sludge: the case study of Porvoa da Galega. https:\\Fenix.technicoulishboapt/downloadFile/281870113704124/Extended Abstrat.pdf

  14. Enrica U, Esther L, Anna P, Iret F, Roger C, Joan G (2019) Sludge dewatering and stabilizing in drying reed beds: characterization of their full-scale systems in Catalonia Spain. Bioresources Technol. https://doi.org/10.1016/jbbiotech.2002.03.047

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Elbaz A, Aboulfotoh A, Elgohary E, Reham M (2018) Evaluation of sludge dewatering reed beds: a niche for small systems. J Mater Proc Technol. 35(6):21–28

    Google Scholar 

  16. Watanabe Y, Komine H, Yasuhara K, Murakami S, Jaehyoung B, Toyoda K (2010) Mixing utilization of drinking water sludge and sandy soil based on environmental and economical effects. JSCE Proc C 66(4):788–799

    Google Scholar 

  17. Sudarno P, Purwanto P, Pratikso P (2014) Life circle assessment on cement treated recycling base (CTRB) construction. Waste Technol. https://doi.org/10.12777/wastech.2.2.31-40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Pawel Z, Dorota B, Agata B (2020) Model of Carbon footprint assessment for the Life cycle of the system of wastewater collection transport and treatment. Sci Rep 10:1–21. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62798-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Takeshi K (2015) Soil excavation and reclamation in civil engineering: environmental aspects. Soil Sci Plant Nutr 61:22–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380768.2015.1020506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. UK CO2 (eq) emission due to electricity generation (2021). https://www.rensmart.com/Calculators/KWH-to-CO2. Assessed August 2021

  21. Alexandra S, Anthoula M, Patros G (2020) Energy consumption and internal distribution in Greece. Water 12:1204. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12041204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Bardai H, Linsey C (1995) Real-time emissions from construction equipment compared with model predictions. J Air Waste Manag Assoc 65:115–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2014.978485

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Sabastian B, Reto R, Matthias S (2021) Climbing ropes-environmental hotspots in their Life circle and potentials for optimization. Sustainability 13:707. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020707

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Emission factors in kg CO2 equivalent per unit (2021) https://www.winnipeg.ca/finance/findata/matmgt/documents/2012/682-2012/6822012_Appendix_HWSTP_South_End_Plant_Process_Selection_Report/Appendix%207.pdf

  25. Guidelines for measuring and managing CO2 emission from freight transport operations (2021) https://www.ecta.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ECTA-CEFIC-GUIDELINE-FOR-MEASURING-AND-MANAGING-CO2-ISSUE-1.pdf. Assessed August 2021

  26. Peng B, Cai C, Yin G (2015) Evaluation system for CO2 emission of hot asphalt mixture. J Traffic Transp Eng 2:116–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtte.2015.02.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kate S, Shuming L (2017) Energy for conventional water supply and waste treatment in urban China: a review. J Global Chall 1:1600016. https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201600016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Waste treatment plants and pumping stations (2021) http://open_jicareport.jica.gojp/pdf/117672-11.pdf. Assessed 20 May 2021

  29. Global Warming countermeasure manual for sewerage-explanation of guideline for controlling greenhouse gas emissions in the sewerage sector (2016). The Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. https://www.env.go.jp/earth/ondanka/gel/pdf/manua160530b.pdf

  30. Fayomi G, Mini S, Fayomi O, Ayoola O (2019) Perspective on environmental CO2 emission and energy factor in cement industry. IOP Conf Ser: Earth Environ Sci. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755/1315/331/1/102035

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Engineering, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, 8528521, Japan

    Samuel O. Flemmy, Kiyoshi Omine & Zichen Zhang

Authors
  1. Samuel O. Flemmy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kiyoshi Omine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zichen Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kiyoshi Omine.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Flemmy, S.O., Omine, K. & Zhang, Z. Simple dehydration technique using drainage string to treat drinking water sludge for utilization as geomaterial. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 24, 1355–1367 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-022-01420-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-022-01420-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation