THE ELECTRODEWATERING OF SEWAGE SLUDGES

Electrodewatering (EDW), the enhancement of conventional pressure filtration by an electric field, is an emerging technology with the potential to improve dewatering especially for difficult materials. CSIRO has many years of experience in EDW, ranging from bench scale tests to demonstration trials. A recent programme has investigated the applicability of EDW to aerobic wastewater treatment sludges which are particularly difficult to dewater using conventional equipment. The bench scale filtration experiments produced cakes with solids contents of 35-46 wt% using EDW, compared with 24-30 wt% using pressure filtration alone. This paper : * describes how the dewatering results were achieved; *identifies a relationship between moisture removal limits by EDW and the forms of water within the sludge; *shows the results of preliminary attempts to mathematically model the EDW process