Alum Sludge: Conditioning, Dewatering and Drying Using a Pilot ScaleDemonstrationSolar Dryer

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, EL-Minia University.

2 Basic Engineering Science Department, Faculty of Engineering, Minoufiya University Corresponding Author.

Abstract

Abstract A large quantity of sludge is generated each year from water treatment plants in Egypt. Disposing such sludge to the nearest watercourse is the common practice in Egypt, which accumulatively rise the aluminum concentrations in water and consequently in human bodies. Sludge reduction and dewatering is an important aspect of water treatment. This is causes a challenege to the Egyptian government program, where the reduction in volume of wastes to lead to significant transport and handling cost savings. In this investigation, water treatment sludges was collected from the water treatment plant from Kedwan Station water treatment plant, in the South of Egypt, Elminia City. In this study, a novel combination of chemical and physical conditioning, with the application of solar drying were examined to explore their integrated influence on the dewatering of alum sludge. Moreover, evaporative solar dryer system has been installed on the sun-shine to convert alum sludge into a drier, through solar radiation exposure resulting in decreased moisture concentration. Such conditioners are, Fenton’s reagent, gypsum, FeCl3, anionic and cationic polymers and hydrogen peroxide. A comparative investigation is monitored and a combination between conditioners are applied to get the optimum dewatering facility. The average sludge moisture content decreased from 94% to 6% within one day in summer, resulting to a dry product. Solar sludge drying method was proved to be efficient for regions which receive high annual solar radiation such as Egypt

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