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The Prediction of Filter Belt Press Dewatering Efficiency for Activated Sludge
By Experimentation on Filtration Compression Cells
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Jérémy Olivier
Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour
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J. OLIVIER1,2, J. VAXELAIRE1,*
2- E.M.O. s.a.
40 rue du Bignon, Immeuble le "Ponant ", B.P. 17, 35574 Chantepie Cedex France
ABSTRACT
The filter belt press is commonly used to dewater activated sludge. However, little research has
been done on this process and the prediction of its efficiency. Experimentation have been
carried out in a filtration compression cell (FCC) and in a pilot scale filter belt press. It offers a
way of determining filter belt press efficiency thanks to simple laboratory research. The
pressure distribution around the pressing roller was measured inside the pilot scale filter belt
press. It showed progressive increase (up to a certain maximum value : plateau), which was
followed by a rapid decrease. The impact of the progressive increase of applied pressure onto
the dry solid sludge content was observed in FCC. Similar dry solid contents were obtained
from both the above laboratory devices when the application of the pressure is comparable (in
time and increasing rate).
INTRODUCTION
These different equations do not correlate well with the majority of the experimental data from
current literature. Consequently the interest of such global relationships remains very limited.
To establish more practical equations, filter belt press efficiency must be evaluated with regard
to some measurable physicochemical characteristics of sludges. In this way, a study [5] tried to
define the major factors (among 30) that affect the dewatering characteristics of sewage sludge
in belt filter presses. They showed that only the viscosity of raw sludge could be correlated to
the moisture content of dewatered cake for mixed and anaerobically digested sludges. The
viscosity was affected by the composition in terms of colloids, fibres, volatile suspended solids
and ash.
Due to the current problem of anticipating the behaviour of such an elusive material to study, it
seems useful to develop some laboratory tests capable of easily predicting the efficiency of the
industrial devices. Several techniques, classically used to characterise solid-liquid separation,
have been tested; such as gravity drainage methods [6,7], capillary suction time measurement
(CST) [6,8,9], measurement of the specific resistance of filtration (SRF) [6,9,10] in filtration
compression cells (FCC) or on funnel-type vacuum units [8], laboratory centrifugation [5,11], or
the measurement of infinite cake solid content [12].
The inability of all these tests to accurately predict the efficiency of industrial belt filters are due
to several aspects, such as differences in dewatering times [6,13] and in the value of applied
pressures. To progress on these aspects other methods of investigation were proposed. A
classical FCC was modified with a rotary piston to take into account the shearing observed in
belt filters [10]. Nevertheless, the results obtained from this modified device cannot be directly
applied to the design of industrial devices. Other authors [14, 15] have used a permeable piston
and consequently modified the FCC to a double-sided piston filter press. This modification
enables better prediction of industrial effectiveness, but does not consider the pressure
distribution around the roller. Some specific laboratory devices dedicated to the study of the
belt filter press have also been developed. A device constituted of a belt (length = 1.8 m, width =
0.2 m) tensed by two rollers (diameter = 0.25 m) was used [16]. The belt speed (1-17 m.min-1)
was set by an electric motor and a pneumatic jacket allowed to fix the belt tension. For
experimentation, a sample of drained sludge was laid on the belt and trapped with a piece of
filter cloth (length = 0.6 m) which was on the sludge and clipped at the ends. This stage of
installation of the sludge is delicate and can have some effects on the experimental results,
which could explain why this apparatus is used rarely. Another laboratory device called the
"Crown Press " was also developed [17]. It is a PVC pipe cut in half lengthwise (the crown) with
slots to allow filtrate drainage [18-21]. A curved surface was used to better simulate the
pressure distribution around pressing rollers. A piece of filter cloth was fixed on the crown and
a sample of sludge was laid on it. Then, another piece of cloth was fixed on the crown and put
over the sludge to squeeze it. The bottom of this second piece of cloth was tensed by a hook
attached to a pinion system. This specific device has given some interesting results but it is not
often used. Equipment suppliers generally prefer simpler and more standard tests such as FCC.
The aim of this paper is to propose a procedure to carry out FCC tests according to belt filter
specificity. This work should improve and facilitate the design of industrial belt filter presses
for biological sludge dewatering.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Experiments were carried out on activated sludge with two different devices: a pilot belt filter
press and a filtration compression cell (FCC).
dry solid content in the final cake. The relative error ( Cmax Cmin ) was estimated to be under 3%.
Caverage
Moreover, some tests were carried out to compare dewatering efficiency between the laboratory
device and an industrial belt filter press operating in the Pau-Lescar municipal wastewater
treatment plant (France). These experiments were performed on the same sludge in similar
operating conditions, in terms of belt tension, belt speed, sludge loading, and the number of
cycles (across pressing rollers). The results of this comparison have shown accurate agreement
between the laboratory device and the industrial one [22].
The sludge
The activated sludge extracted from the thickener at the Pau-Idron municipal wastewater
treatment plant (France). It was conditioned by a high molecular weight and high charge
density (80%) cationic polymer (SNF Floerger, France, ref. EM 840 TRM). The conditioner dose
was fixed from preliminary experiments to 7 g kgDS-1.
The polymer solution (2.15 g l-1) was added with a syringe while the sludge was gently shaken
in a stirred vessel for 30 s.
In order to simulate industrial practices the sludge was drained during five minutes on a
gravity drainage system before the dewatering experiments began (on the pilot device and in
FCC).
Pressure measurements
To evaluate belt filter press effectiveness it is important to know the operating parameters,
especially the pressure applied around the pressing rollers. Usually this pressure is determined
by the following equation [19,23] (not including rolling friction and belt elasticity) :
Lc
tn (iii)
s
One example of these comparative tests is reported on figure 5. It shows good agreement
between both experiments with a maximal deviation of 1%. The result of one complementary
experiment, carried out in FCC at a constant pressure (Pmax), indicates the importance of the
procedure of progressive pressurisation (Fig 5). The data presented on figure 5 also indicates
that the number of pressing rollers seems to have an impact only on the pressing time. Other
similar tests performed under different operating conditions led to the same results and
confirmed the interest of measurements in FCC to predict filter belt press dewatering efficiency.
CONCLUSION
This work has contributed to the application of a classical laboratory test to the design of filter
belt presses. It has presented a procedure to predict, from experiments carried out in the
filtration compression cell (FCC), the effectiveness of industrial devices. This study has shown
the necessity to be very aware of the distribution of pressure around the pressing rollers,
especially the first one. The addition of other pressing rollers essentially contributes to increase
the time of pressing. When these two aspects (progressive pressurisation and time of pressing)
are correctly assessed for experiments in FCC, the dry solid content of the sludge, dewatered by
the filter belt press, can be accurately estimated.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study was carried out on behalf of E.M.O. Ltd.
NOTATION
C : Final dry solid content of filter belt press (gDS gcake-1)
Cmax : Maximal dry solid content measured during experiments of reliability (gDS gcake-1)
Cmin : Minimal dry solid content measured during experiments of reliability (gDS gcake-1)
Caverage : Average dry solid content obtained during experiments of reliability (gDS gcake-1)
C0 : Initial dry solid content of sludge (gDS gcake-1)
C’0 : Initial dry solid concentration of sludge (kgDS m-3)
Droller : Diameter of belt filter press roller (m)
E : Solid recovery efficiency (-)
l : Cake width (m)
lbelt: : Belt width (m)
Lc : Length of the pressing zone around a given roller (m)
n : Number of pressing rollers
Proller : Pressure drop around the cake around belt filter press rollers (Pa)
Q : Filtrate flow rate (m3 h-1)
Q0 : Input sludge flow rate (m3 h-1)
s : Belt speed (m s-1)
Tbelt : Belt tension (N)
X : Position in the pressing zone around a roller (m)
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Table1. Estimation of belt filter press efficiency on municipal sludges by Lotito et al. [3].
(for 1 < Q0 < 3 m3 h-1, 3 < sb < 12 m min-1 and 13 < C’0 >34 kg m-3)
C0
C
0 - 10 90 – 100 0.044 0.0426 C0 30 0.89 4
C0
C
10 – 40 60 - 90 0.0297 0.0402 C0 7 0.90 3
C0
C
40 - 60 40 – 60 0.059 0.0307 C0 35 0.84 3
C0
C
60 – 80 20 - 40 0.062 0.0306 C0 17 0.82 3
C0
C
80 - 100 0 - 20 0.071 0.0266 C0 12 0.87 3
Figure 1. Laboratory filter belt press.
Pneumatic jack
Roller
driven by
11
the electric 9
motor
Belt
10
Wedge zone
1 2 4 5
7
I 6
Filtrate tanks A
E
Figure 2. Applied pressure versus a dimensionless length: ratio of any length over the whole
length (in the roller pressing zone). 2a. Effect of belt tension on pressure distribution around a
roller.
( : 206 N, : 382 N, : 971 N, :1383 N, : 2354 N, : 2943 N, : 3531 N)
2b. Effect of roller diameter on pressure distribution around a roller ( : Droller= 0.27 m, : Droller=
0.17 m). Belt tension: 197 N.
4.5 1.6
a b
4.0 1.4
3.5
1.2
Pressure ( bar)
Pressure (bar)
3.0
1.0
2.5
0.8
2.0
0.6
1.5
1.0 0.4
0.5 0.2
0.0 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
X / Lc X / Lc
Figure 3. Effect of the pressurisation procedure ( : 1.5 bar applied instantaneously, :
1.5 bar applied progressively over the first two minutes)
Figure 4. Pressure distribution: in FCC ( ______ ), and in the pilot filter belt press for a experiment
carried out with a series of seven pressing rollers (diameter 0.27 m) and a belt speed of 1.5 m
min-1 (------).
Figure 5. Comparison of FCC ( ) and the pilot filter belt press ( ) results in terms of cake
solid content.
15
14
Dry solid content (%)
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
0 20 40 60 80 100
Time (s)