Physical conditioning methods for sludge deep dewatering: A critical review

Sludge is an inevitable waste product of sewage treatment with a high water content and large volume, it poses a significant threat of secondary pollution to both water and the atmosphere without proper disposal. In this regard, dewatering has emerged as an attractive method in sludge treatment, as it can reduce the sludge volume, enhance its transportability and calorific value, and even decrease the production of landfill leachate. In recent years, physical conditioning methods including non-chemical conditioners or energy input alone, have been extensively researched for their potential to enhance sludge dewatering efficiency, such as thermal treatment, freeze-thaw, microwave, ultrasonic, skeleton builders addition, and electro-dewatering, as well as combined methods. The main objective of this paper is to comprehensively evaluate the dewatering capacity of various physical conditioning methods, and identify key factors affecting sludge dewatering efficiency. In addition, future research anticipated directions and outlooks are proposed. This work is expected to provide valuable insights for developing efficient, eco-friendly, and low-energy consumption techniques for deep sludge dewatering.

Homogeneously and heterogeneously structured biofilm models for wastewater treatment

Biofilm, a layer comprising extracellular polymeric substances, is the platform where the embedded living cells degrade the substances in the wastewaters. Biofilm models have been developed as part of the comprehensive models for the wastewater treatment process. This review summarizes the biofilm models applied in contemporary literature based on the spatial dimensions adopted for model build-up. The most commonly applied biofilm models are null-dimensional, considering the biofilm active biomass for the substrate sink's biological reaction. The one-dimensional, multi-species models are the second standard models for contemporary studies, providing transport and reaction resistances of substrates in the biofilm matrix and the interactions of competing or collaborating strains in the biofilm. The structural homogeneity of the biofilm challenges the validity of the uniformly structured models, highlighting the need to re-examine the validity of the uniformly structured models. The challenges and prospects of biofilm model developments and applications are outlined.

An efficient separation for metal-ions from wastewater by ion precipitate flotation: Probing formation and growth evolution of metal-reagent flocs

Hazardous metal pollution became a severe environmental issue in China. An efficient precipitation-flotation process was developed to achieve fast removal for metal-ions from wastewater. Structure and strength of precipitate particles/flocs significantly influence the flotation removal of metal-ions. Formation and growth-evolution of precipitate flocs in precipitate flotation were studied by stage analysis of precipitate particles-formation, flocs-regulation and flotation separation. The results demonstrate that early formed precipitates MHA(humics-metal complexing particles) have small particle size, high fractal dimension, low strength and recovery factor. The addition of Fe³⁺ and CTAB(cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide) reagents make the precipitate particles aggregated to flocs(MHA-Fe, MHA-Fe-CTAB) much more large, loose, coarse, and small-density. The final generated MHA-Fe-CTAB flocs are hard to be broken up, easy to be recovered and efficient to be separated by flotation process. The flotation removal of MHA-Fe-CTAB flocs is clearly higher than that of MHA or MHA-Fe. The flotation results of MHA-Fe-CTAB are as follows: flotation removal of 98.7 ± 0.40%-99.9 ± 0.10%, residual TOC of 0.96 ± 0.38-1.35 ± 0.41 mg/L and turbidity of 0.44 ± 0.09-0.63 ± 0.16 NTU. Introducing Fe³⁺ and CTAB reagents into flotation solution contributes to the growth-evolution of precipitate flocs, which could intensify the metal-ions removal via precipitate flotation process and result in more ideal purification indexes for metal-containing wastewater.

Perspective on enhancing the anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of waste activated sludge (WAS) is an important bio-energy strategy that has been hindered by low conversion efficiency. This paper presents a comprehensive review of research on the sludge's property and enhancing AD of WAS, and proposes two perspectives of material structure and microbial activity on improving AD efficiency. In the first part of this review, the key principle problems for hindering AD efficiency are identified based on the concept of AD. Then, the possibility that the complex microstructure and composition of WAS are responsible for poor biodegradability is considered and main methods for enhancing AD are summarized. In the third part, according to the published works, the main knowledge gaps in research are recognized as the identification and specific activity adjustment of functional microbes, the understanding of key constituents of WAS and their interactions, the deciphering of complex structure of sludge organic substance, and the revealing of relationships between complex nature of WAS and biodegradability. Further discussions reveal that to enhance AD more studies should be centered on the sludge's structure and properties in future. However, this review is expected to provide the clear and accurate research directions for enhancing AD efficiency of WAS.

Study of Sludge Particles Formed during Coagulation of Synthetic and Municipal Wastewater for Increasing the Sludge Dewatering Efficiency

Municipal wastewater sludge was produced by chemical coagulation of synthetic wastewater (sww) based on Synthene Scarlet P3GL disperse dye and real municipal wastewater (nww), coagulated by commercial coagulants PAX (prepolymerised aluminum coagulant) and PIX (a ferric coagulant based on Fe2(SO4)3). An attempt was made to correlate the sludge’s dewatering capacity (in terms of capillary suction time—CST) with operation parameters for wastewater treatment, size distribution and specific surface area of the sludge particles. It was found that the presence of phosphate ions in the system facilitates the removal efficiency of the above-mentioned dye (L) due to the interaction between the dye molecules and H2PO4− ions. Unlike sww, negatively charged organic substances (sorg) in nww are directly adsorbed on the surface of colloidal particles {Fe(OH)3} and {Al(OH)3} (prtc). It was also discovered that an increase in the dose of a coagulant led to an increase of CST for sww sludge and to a decrease of CST for nww sludge. It has been suggested that flocs composed of spherical {Al(OH)3} units possessed more internal space for water than aggregates consisting of rod-shaped {Fe(OH)3} units and, consequently, it is more difficult to remove water from Al-sww sludge than from Fe-sww. The results obtained showed that smaller particles dominate in sww sludge, while larger particles are prevalent in nww sludge. To explain this distinct difference in the size distribution of particles in sludge obtained with the use of Al3+ and Fe3+, simple models of aggregation and agglomeration-flocculation processes (aaf) of treated wastewater have been proposed. Except for PIX in nww, the analyzed particles of the investigated types of sludge were characterized by similar specific surface area (Sps), regardless of the kind of sludge or the applied coagulant. Slightly larger, negatively-charged sorg bridges, anchored directly on the surface of positive prtc are more effective in closing the structure of nww sludge than small L bridges of the dye molecules anchored on the surface of prtc via H2PO4−. All the discovered aspects could lead to improved performance of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) by increasing the efficiency of sludge dewatering.

Micro-environment characteristics and microbial communities in activated sludge flocs of different particle size

Microorganisms in activated sludge flocs (ASF) play important roles in the wastewater treatment process. However, the interplay between micro-environmental variation and microbial responses within ASF is poorly understood. In this study, microelectrodes and molecular culture-independent techniques were applied to detect the internal environment, microbial composition, and distribution in flocs with different particle size. Results showed dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations within the center of the flocs were less than at the surface, and the DO concentration distributions were distinct in flocs of different particle size. With floc particle size increasing from 100 to 250 μm, the DO concentrations in the floc centers decreased 10-55%, respectively, while no distinct change was observed in flocs of less than 100 μm. Similar phenomenon occurred for the distributions of NH(4)(+) and NO(3)(-) in flocs. Microbial structure indicated bacterial compositions and distributions were heterogeneous and responded to micro-environment variation in flocs of different particle size.

Deodorization and dewatering of biosolids by using dimethyl ether

We proposed a method for the deodorising and dewatering of biosolids. In the proposed method, liquefied dimethyl ether (DME) was used as an extractant for odorous components and water. We developed a bench-scale experiment to almost completely deodorize and dewater biosolids by using liquefied DME at room temperature. The deodorized and dewatered biosolids have sufficient caloric density and can be used as a carbon neutral fuel.