• Digested sludge is applied on a well drained

bed & dried sludge is used as a manure or

soil conditioner
• This method can be used where adequate
land is available
• The dissolved gases in the digested sludge
buoy up & float the solids & leaving a clear
Sludge liquid at the bottom which drains through
the sand rapidly
Drying • Major portion of liquid drains off in a few
hours after which air drying commences by
Beds evaporation
• Sludge cakes shrinks producing cracks which
accelerates evaporation from the sludge
surface
• In areas having greater sunshine, lower
rainfall & lesser humidity, the drying time
may be two weeks & in other areas, it could
be 4 weeks or more
• Covered beds are generally not used
Sludge
Drying
beds
Scratching of Dry sludge From Beds
 Design criteria for Drying beds
• Volume of sludge, climate, temperature & location are the
important factors for design criteria
• Areas required for drying beds range from 0.1 to 1.25m2/capita
and dry solid loading of 80 to 100kg/m2 of bed per year for
digested primary sludge and from 0.125 to 0.25m2/capita with dry
solids loading of 60 to 120 kg/m2/year for digested mixed sludge,
for bed specifications
• Depth of sand bed vary from 150mm to 300mm
 Example
Design sludge drying beds for digested sludge from sewage treatment
plant with trickling filters serving 2,00000 population
Solution
Solids in digested sludge from mix primary & trickling filter is
40gm/cap/day
Daily solids = 2,00000x40
= 8000 kg
 Solution continue….
• Adopting a dry solid loading of 100 kg/m2/yr.

Area of bed = 8000x365/100= 29200m2

Check for per capita area = 29200/200000 = 0.146m2
(Within the range of 0.125 to 0.25)
Adopting 8m x 40m bed.
No. of beds = 29200/8x40 = 91.25 say 92 beds
Assuming 2 months for rainy season in a year & 2 weeks for
drying 1 week for preparation & repair of beds, no. of cycles
per comes to
12 − 2
= 13say
3
4
 Solution continue….
• Volume of digested sludge (assuming 8% of solids and
sp. gr. of 1.1)
100 1 1
8000    = 90m 3/day
8 1.1 1000
Depth of application = 90  365
92  8  40  13

= 0.087m = 8.7 cm
This can be safely increased to 20cm, reducing the area
requirement to
(29200x8.7)+20 = 12700 m2
 Home Work
Design sludge drying beds for digested sludge
from sewage treatment plant with trickling
filters serving 2,50000 population
Solids in digested sludge from mix primary &
trickling filter is 45gm/cap/day
 Treatment Types of Sludge
Sludge treatment involves a number of steps & process options, the
selection & extent of which depends on factors such as the site-
specific composition of the sludge, the variable budget for sludge
treatment & the intended fate of final treated sludge. Generally these
can be considered in the following common steps:
• Thickening
• Pre-treatment
• Digestion (also called stabilization)
• Conditioning
• De-watering
• Thermal reduction
• End-use or disposal
 Anaerobic Digestion
• AD is the most popular for of sludge treatment
• It produces a biorenewable energy source in the methane gas that is
released
• Can also produce sludge that is acceptable for agricultural usage as a soil
conditioning material
• Digestion involves the degradation of sewage sludge by mixed populations
of bacteria usually at mesophilic temperatures (350C)
• A typical process would apply 12 days @ 350C
• And followed by 14 days of secondary digestion at ambient temperatures
• Mechanical or gas mixing is applied to provide homogenous condition &
reduce by-pass flow of sludge
Other Process of Treating Sewage
Sludge
• Incineration
• Composting
• Thermal drying
• Pyrolysis
• Gasification
• Alkali (lime) treatment
• Aerobic digestion
• Pasteurisation
• Thermal hydrolysis
• Novel processes (eg. Gamma radiation, Vitrification)