Wastewater Treatment Research Unit
Hydrogen Research Unit
Staff
Publications
Research Projects
Links |
The water industry has a major problem with Surplus Activated Sludge (SAS) as it is difficult to digest and dewater. There are many potential solutions to increase digestibility and de-waterability ranging from sonication, high pressure disruption to chemical treatment. Many of these technologies are available but there is little fundamental knowledge of the effect the various treatments have on the chemical and physical structure of SAS. In some cases digestibility increases are small, leaving significant room for process improvement. The research programme aims to:
- Determine the basic constituents of Surplus Activated Sludge (SAS) and primary sludgeAnalyse the reproducibility of SAS and primary sludge characteristics from various wastewater treatment plants
- Investigate the reasons for poor dewaterablilty and digestibility of SAS (i.e. effect of chemical composition, wastewater type, activated sludge plant mode of operation, sludge age) and identify the reasons for varying the demand of flocculating chemicals during dewatering depending on SAS ratio and compositionIdentify and evaluate the performance of various pre-treatment techniques to improve the digestability and de-waterability of SAS and investigate if pre-thickening has an impact on digestibility of SAS
- Critically evaluate and improve the understanding of how these pre-treatment processes improve digestibility and de-waterability
- Assess how these pre-treatments affect the SAS with respect to cell disruption and changes in extracellular material
- Investigate the potential of selected pre-treatment methods for application at full-scale – technical, maintenance and cost analysis including the input of energy will be critically evaluated
|
