J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018) 20:421–430

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-017-0597-1

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Centrifugal dewatering of blended sludge from drinking water

treatment plant and wastewater treatment plant
Ailan Yan1,2 · Jun Li1,3 · Liu Liu4 · Ting Ma3 · Jun Liu1 · Yongjiong Ni3 

Received: 19 April 2016 / Accepted: 2 February 2017 / Published online: 16 March 2017
© Springer Japan 2017

Abstract  The blended sludge taken from drinking water
treatment plant (WTP) and wastewater treatment plant
(WWTP) for centrifugal dewatering was proposed. Resid-
ual products of polyaluminum chloride and inorganic parti-
cles in alum sludge from WTP were considered to improve
dewaterability of sewage sludge from WWTP through the
charge neutralization, adsorption bridging, squeezing, and
skeleton builders. The sludge with blend ratio of 1:1 and
no PAM addition, the specific resistance to filtration was
1.27 × 1013 m/kg, the moisture content was 62% after cen-
trifugal dewatering, and more excellent dewatering perfor-
mance of blended sludge was proved. Scanning electron
microscope showed that the surface of blended sludge had
more rough and porosity structure than the sewage sludge.
EDS analysis showed that residual alum and inorganic par-
ticles existed in blended sludge. 3D-Excitation-emission
matrix was used to analyze change of protein-like of sew-
age sludge and blended sludge with dewatering process.
The results implied that alum sludge acted as chemical
conditioner and physical conditioner in blended sludge. A
hypothesis was suggested to describe the centrifugal dewa-
tering process of blended sludge. The final disposal options
* Jun Li
tanweilijun@zjut.edu.cn
1 dewatering, and it can flocculate the sludge particles and
College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology,
No. 18, Chao Wang Road, Hangzhou 310014, China
2 difficult to find the exact PAM dosage in the sludeg dewa-
Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power,
No. 583, Xue Lin Street, Hangzhou 310018, China
3 age sludge concentration and the sludge colloid property.
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang
University of Technology, No. 18, Chao Wang Road,
Hangzhou 310014, China
4
Hangzhou Urban and Rural Construction Design Institute
Co., Ltd., No. 22, Gu Jia Fan Road, Hangzhou 310010, China
of the blended sludge would be landfilling and building
material utilization.
Keywords  Blended sludge · Alum sludge · Centrifugal
dewatering · Moisture content · 3D-EEM
Introduction
Municipal wastewater treatment plants produce a large
amount of sludge which contains more than 98% water,
and the volume of the sewage sludge should be reduced
before final disposal [1]. However, the dewatering of sew-
age sludge is a major challenge to the wastewater treatment
process [2], because of its extreme solids compressibility
caused by its highviscosity resulted from highly negative
chargedsmall particles and large amounts of organic con-
tent including extracellular polymers. In the present, the
sewage sludge is pretreated with kinds of chemical and
physical conditioners before dewatered [3].
The role of chemical conditioner is to destroy the
sludge colloid stability, neutralize the electrical property,
and adsorb bridging. The chemical conditioners include
chloride, polyacrylamide, calcium oxide, and ferric, etc
[4]. Cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM) is one of the com-
mon used polymer organic chemicals conditioner in sludge
improve the sludge dewatering rate [5]. However, it is more
tering process for the PAM dosage depends on the sew-
Excessive consumption of PAM will increase the cost of
sludge treatment, while insufficient amount of PAM will
affect the effect of sludge dewatering [6]. Therefore, chemi-
cal conditioning has difficulties to improve the sludge cake

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422
solids content in the mechanical dewatering, for the sewage
sludge which is often hindered by blinding of the filter cake
itself and the filtration media [7]. In addition, PAM may
cause secondary contamination.
Physical conditioners are used as skeleton builders or fil-
ter aids to reduce the sludge compressibility and improve
the sludge mechanical strength and permeability. During
the mechanical dewatering, these physical conditioners
can form more permeable rigid lattice to maintain porosity
structure [3]. Many inorganic particles can be used as the
skeleton, including fly ash, gypsum, lime, lignite, sawdust,
wheat residue, fiber, rice bran, red mud, struvite stone, sea-
food shell, and humus [8–14]. As a result, all of these inor-
ganic particles could improve sludge dewaterability and the
lowest moisture content can be reduced to 70% [15].
The polyaluminum chloride (PACl) flocculant is com-
monly used in drinking water treatment plants and large
amount of alum sludge is produced. Therefore, if the alum
sludge is not appropriately disposed, it may cause serious
environmental problems [16]. Alum sludge contains lots of
inorganic particles and residual aluminum hydroxide [17].
These inorganic particles will provide a good skeleton and
friction and squeeze for crushing the sludge particles acting
as physical conditioners. Aluminum hydrolysate and the
residual PACl might implement the charge neutralization
and adsorption bridging effect acting as chemical condi-
tioner [18–20]. Therefore, PAM is also used in the process
of sludge dewatering in the drinking water treatment plant;
thus, the residual PAM in the alum sludge is also helpful
for sludge dewatering [21].
Although co-treatment of alum sludge and sewage
sludge has widely been studied, there has been relatively
little research on the blended sludge dewatering mechanism
when alum sludge mixed with sewage sludge as chemical
conditioners and physical conditioners, and few of them
used 3D-excitation-emission matrix (3D-EEM) to indicate
the sludge dewatering performance. Compared to other
analytical methods, the 3D-excitation-emission matrix (3D-
EEM) was more convenient. Furthermore, there has few lit-
erature to discuss the alum sludge to improve the sewage
sludge dewaterability with centrifugation process, though
centrifugal dewatering is one of the common methods in
dewatering industry. In the literature [22], the researchers
just discussed the filter press to improve the sewage sludge
dewaterability with alum sludge, and it did not deal with
the centrifugation process. In addition, the special centrif-
ugal tube was designed and made for the experiments, to
observe the dewatering experimental result more clearly,
and analyze the dewatering experimental samples more
accurately.
The aim of this work is to: (1) investigate the effect of
the blended sludge dewaterability with centrifugation pro-
cess; (2) propose the dewatering mechanism of alum sludge
13
J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018) 20:421–430
mixed with sewage sludge as chemical conditioners and
physical conditioners through scanning electron micro-
scope (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), and
3D-excitation-emission matrix (3D-EEM); (3) estimate the
feasibility of reducing the dewatering conditioners and the
economy of co-dewatering. The results provide important
insights for systematically understanding the dewatering
mechanism of co-treatment and the technical and economic
aspects of co-treatment of alum sludge and sewage sludge.
Materials and methods
Materials
In this experiment, the sewage sludge was taken from the
secondary sedimentation tank of Qige wastewater treatment
in Hangzhou city. The VSS/SS was approximately 75%, the
pH value was 6.8–7.0, and the moisture content was about
98.5%, which was stored under room temperature. It was
activated sludge and it would be ready for dewatering after
adding PAM in the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
All experiments were carried out in 2 days after sampling.
The alum sludge was from a local drinking water treat-
ment plant and the moisture content was 64%, which was
dewatered in the water treatment plantby machinery. In
this work, we did not carry out the alum sludge dewatering
experiment. In the water treatment plant, PACl was used
as the primary coagulant to purifying drinking water, and
then the residual PACl and reaction product might deposit
in thealum sludge. Besides, polyacrylamide (PAM), sur-
factants, are widely applied to improve the mechanical
dewaterability of the sludge [23]. In this WTP, the dos-
age of PACl was 27 g/t water and the dosage of PAM was
0.21  g/t water. The finally alum sludge moisture content
was about 64% and the pH value was about 6.9–7.1. The
alum sludge color was yellowish-brown. The sludge was
stored under room temperature.
Inorganic phase may be different in various water treat-
ment plants, according to the different drinking water
source, such as river water, lake water, groundwater, which
may contain the different inorganic particle. However, in
drinking water treatment, in general, the purifying water
process is composed of coagulation, sedimentation, filtra-
tion, disinfection, and it needs to add flocculant, such as
PACl, aluminum sulfate, ferric chloride, or other chemical
agents. Therefore, the alum sludge always contains certain
inorganic particles and residual aluminum hydroxide, even
residual PAM and PAM reaction product after dewatering.
In this study, we just discussed the river water as drinking
water source and it contained lots of inorganic particles,
which was helpful for blended sludge dewatered. More
J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018) 20:421–430 423
detailed quantitative analysis might be conducted in the
further research.
Sludge centrifugal dewatering tube
Centrifugal dewatering system included the con-
ventional laboratory low-speed centrifuge
(350  L × 370  W × 295  Hmm) with the maximum speed
5000  r/min and the special centrifugal tube (50  mL). The
sludge samples were dewatered by the centrifuge about
15  min with 2000  rpm. The special centrifugal tube
(115  mm × ϕ 30  mm, made in the lab) was divided into
three parts and the dewatering sludge was sampled from
Part  II, and centrifugal water was obtained from Part  III
(Fig. 1).
Analytical methods
Sludge dewatering performance
The specific resistance to filtration (SRF) is an important
index to reflect the dewatering performance of sludge, and
higher SRF value indicates poorer dewatering performance.
SRF and moisture content were measured according to the
literature [24]. All samples were performed duplicate.
Process and analysis
The alum sludge (64% of moisture content) was added to
the sewage sludge (5  L) (99% of moisture content) which
was original from the WWTPsecondary sedimentation tank
with different dry weight ratio in experiments, and then
stirred for 10  min until blended completely. The 1 kg/kg
means 1  kg dry alum sludge and 1  kg dry sewage sludge
blended together.
The different sludge samples surface structure was
scanned with scanning electron microscope (SEM) (EDAX,
AMETEK). The SEM samples were performed under the
Fig. 1  The device of centrifu-
gal experiment
30cm
Part II
Part III
manual operation instruction after dewatering.The main
components of the sludge samples were tested with energy
dispersive spectrometry (EDS) (EDAX, AMETEK) with
condition under an accelerating voltage of 25 kV, tilt: 0.70,
take-off: 33.97, ampT: 102.4, detector type: SUTW-Sap-
phire, resolution: 137.91, the dewatering sludge was sam-
pled from Part  II, and centrifugal water. To improve the
observation effect and reduce the difficulty of operation,
the sewage sludge for SEM observation was applied with
gold electroplating.
The 3D-excitation-emission matrix (3D-EEM) of clari-
fying supernatant in beaker (1  L) and centrifuge liquid
obtained from Part  III (Fig.  1) were conducted with F97
luminescence spectrophotometer (Shanghai Lengguang
Technology Co. Ltd.). The supernatant was taken from the
original sewage sludge and blended sludge (1 kg/kg of mix-
ing ratio) after stiring for 10 min and standing for 15 min
in the beaker, respectively. PTM voltage was 500  V, the
emission interval was 1 nm, and the excitation interval was
10 nm. The emission and excitation wavelengths were var-
ied in the between of 200 and 600 nm. The scan speed was
set at 6000 nm/min. The 3D-EEM data were processed by
origin 8.0.
All samples were performed duplicate.
Results and discussion
The specific resistance to filtration of blended sludge
The SRF values of the original sewage sludge and blended
sewage sludge (1  kg/kg) were showed under the different
PAM dose proportions (Fig. 2). It was very obviously found
that two groups SRF value decreased with the increase of
PAM dosage content. At the beginning, without PAM, the
SRF of the blended sludge and the sewage sludge were
1.27 × 1013 and 3.73 × 1013 m/kg, respectively. Then, under
the same PAM dosage, the blended sludge SRF value was
Injection sample
Part I
Centrifugalsludge
Part II Filter pore + Filter cloth
Rubber band
Part I
Part III Centrifugal liquid
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424 J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018) 20:421–430

4.5 sludge SRF value was down to 0.89 × 1013  m/kg even in

sewage sludge
the absence of PAM by centrifugal dewatering. The result
sewage sludge+1Kg/Kg alum sludge
showed that the alum sludge with the increasing dosage
3.6
could gradually reduce the dosage of PAM and even elimi-
nate the addition of PAM on the dewatering effect. The
SRF ×10 13 ( m / K g )

2.7 result was similar with the literature [16].

The moisture content of blended sludge

1.8 after centrifugal dewatering

0.9
0.0
0 1 2 3
PAM dosage(g/Kg)
Fig. 2  Change of sludge SRF with different dosages of PAM
much lower than the other group SRF value. In the sew-
age sludge, with the PAM content increasing to 1.5  g/kg,
the SRF value decreased obviously, but after PAM further
increased, the effect to reduce the BRFvalue was not obvi-
ous.The same SRF trend appeared in the blended sew-
age sludge, after the PAM content increased. This result
showed that the effect of alum sludge addition was more
obvious to reduce the SRF value than the effect of PAM.
Figure 3 showed the results of SRF after increasing the
alum sludge dosage under the same PAM dosage (1.5 g/kg)
addition. The SRF of sewage sludge decreased evidently
as the increasing of alum sludge dosage addition. After the
addition of alum sludge increased to 1 kg/kg, the reducing
trend of SRFvalue slowed down, and both the SRF values
were close to the same. When the ratio was 1:2, the blended
The moisture contents of sludge after centrifugal dewater-
ing were determined to gain a further understanding with
adding alum sludge or PAM dose in the sewage sludge.
The change of moisture content of dewatered sludge
4 5 6
with different PAM dosages was shown in Fig.  4. With-
out alum sludge and without PAM, the moisture content of
sewage sludge was 90% after dewatering, and if it was no
alum sludge, the moisture content of sewage sludge would
decrease after added different proportions of PAM and the
lowest moisture content was about 80%. While the moisture
content of blended sludge (1  kg/kg alum sludge/sewage
sludge) had obviously decreased with different proportions
of PAM, and the lowest moisture content was only 62%,
which almost nearly meet the landfill disposal requirements
in China. To some extent, the addition of alum sludge in
these wage sludge was more favorable for dewatering.
In Fig.  5, as the increasing alum sludge dosage in the
sewage, the moisture content of blended sludge dropped
obviously from 90 to 58% after centrifugal dewatering.
Under the blend ratio of 1 kg/kg of the alum sludge to sew-
age sludge, the moisture content was about 64%, but the
effect of PAM addition was not obvious. This result indi-
cated that the dewaterability of blended sludge became

100
Moisture content of dewatered sludge(%)

sewage sludge
4.5
swedge sludge sewage sludge+1Kg/Kg alum sludge
swedge sludge+1.5g/Kg PAM 90
3.6

80
SRF×10 (m/Kg)

2.7
13

70
1.8

60
0.9

50
0.0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 PAM dosage(g/Kg)
alum sludge dosage(g/Kg)
Fig. 4  Change of moisture content of dewatered sludge with different
Fig. 3  Change of sludge SRF with different dosages of alum sludge dosages of PAM

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J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018) 20:421–430 425
M o is tu r e c o n te n t o f d e w a te r e d s lu d g e (% )
Fig. 5  Change of moisture content of dewatered sludge with different
dosages of alum sludge
better with the addition of alum sludge and there was no
obvious change with the addition of PAM.
Centrifugal dewatering mechanism of blended sludge
Improving dewatering of sewage sludge blended with alum
sludge
The surface structure of the original sewage sludge, alum
sludge, and blended sludge samples was scanned using
scanning electron microscope (SEM) in Fig. 6. The micro-
structure of the original sludge sewage was sticky and
dense shown in Fig.  6a, the surface of alum sludge was
patchy shown in Fig. 6b, and the surface of blended sludge
had rough and porosity structure shown in Fig.  6c, which
could provide lots of outflow channels for free water when
the blended sludge was dewatered.
In this study, it is difficult to directly detect the concen-
tration of inorganic particles (i.e., Al, Si, O etc.) in sludge
which was helpful for the blended sewage sludge dewater-
ability. Therefore, energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS)
was employed to detect the chemical composition of the
sludge, which could reflect the variation of inorganic par-
ticles in sludge during the dewatering processes. The ele-
ments’ content distribution of three kinds of sludge was
shown in Table 1: the original sewage sludge, alum sludge,
and blended sludge, respectively. Table 1a showed that the
C element had high proportions about 50% in the percent-
age of table elements, with small amount of Si element,
which meant that the majority content of original sewage
sludge was organic particles.While in Table  1b, the main
amount of element contents was Si and Al and all of them
accounted for 33%. It may conclude that the main coagulant
100 was PACl in this water treatment plant and there had more
sewage sludge inorganic sand in alum sludge. The elements content dis-
sewage sludge +1.5g/Kg PAM
tribution of blended sewage sludge was shown in Table 1c.
90
After blended with alum sludge, the content of inorganic
particles increased and both Al and Si contents accounted
80 for 24%, which chemical composition was obvious differ-
ent with the original sewage sludge. It suggests that the
chemical interactions of alum sludge and sewage sludge
70 would result in the increasing of inorganic particles in the
blended sewage, which is more helpful for the blended sew-
60 age dewatering.
Inorganic particles could make squeezing and provide
outflow channels, while residual product of PACl had the
50
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
effect on charge neutralization and adsorption bridging. It
alum sludge dosage(kg/kg)
is inferred that the alum sludge acts as physical conditioner
and chemical conditioner for sludge dewatering. Moreover,
residual PAM is also helpful for sludge dewatering if PAM
is added alum sludge for dewatering in WTP.
Analysis of protein‑like particles fluorescence
for centrifugal dewatering process
In the sewage sludge, the microorganism can produce large
amount of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and
the proportion of EPS in total organic matter of activated
sludge is roughly between 50–90% [25]. EPS contains a
large number of aromatic structure and unsaturated fatty
acids with different functional groups which have differ-
ent fluorescence [26]. In process of centrifugal dewatering,
inorganic particles (sand) in alum sludge would squeeze the
blended sludge and then the sludge cell would break to pro-
duce a lot of different functional groups.The different func-
tional groups have different fluorescence [27], and then the
different types of EPS peak can be detected by 3D-EEM
fluorescence spectra, such as protein-like particles fluores-
cence and so on [28]. Therefore, their specific fluorescence
properties (protein-like particles) can be used as a standard
to test the extent of cell damage. The protein-like particles
fluorescence peak existed in excitation wavelength/emis-
sion wavelength = 320–400/400–480 nm.
The fluorescence peak results of supernatant and centrif-
ugal liquid were shown in Fig. 7a1–a7 and b­ 1–b7 at different
times on 0, 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20  min, respectively. The
fluorescence peaks intensities of the protein-like particles
were shown in Fig. 8.
In Fig. 7a1 and ­b1, the fluorescence intensity of protein-
like particles insupernatant was different between the sew-
age sludge and blended sludge. The fluorescence intensity
of supernatant from blended sludge was obvious higher
than that of sewage sludge. A supplementary experi-
ment showed there is almost no fluorescence intensity in
the alum sludge supernatant due to little organic matter
in it. According to the increasing of protein-like particles
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426 J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018) 20:421–430

Fig. 6  Microstructure of sewage sludge (a), alum sludge (b), blended sludge with ratios of 1  kg/kg (c) (a–c SEM images are from scanning
electron microscopes and the magnification was 2000 and 5000)

in blended sludge supernatant, it was suggested there had sludge which had effect on increase of protein-like fluores-
produced chemical reactions between the alum sludge and cence intensity of supernatant.This process can be consid-
sewage sludge due to the residual products of PACl in alum ered as the chemical conditioning for sludge.

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J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018) 20:421–430 427

Table 1  Elements content of Sewage sludge Alum sludge Blended sludge

the sewage sludge (a), alum
sludge (b), and the blended (a) (b) (c)
sludge (c) detected with energy
dispersive spectrum Element Weight% Atomic% Element Weight% Atomic% Element Weight% Atomic%

C 50.11 60.76 C 13.79 21.65 C 26.50 37.88

O 37.53 34.13 O 43.86 51.67 O 40.33 43.25
Mg 0.72 0.44 Mg 1.10 0.86 Mg 0.76 0.54
Al 0.05 0.03 Al 10.76 7.51 Al 8.17 5.19
Si 4.12 2.14 Si 22.45 15.11 Si 16.78 10.28
K 3.29 1.23 K 2.54 1.23 K 3.23 1.42
Ca 1.84 0.67 Ca 0.86 0.41 Ca 1.04 0.45
Fe 2.34 0.61 Fe 4.64 1.56 Fe 3.18 0.98

In Fig.  7a2–a7 and ­b2–b7, with centrifugal process, the
fluorescence intensity in centrifugal liquid showed the
same change trend, and the trend was more obvious in
the blended sewage sludge due to the alum sludge. At the
beginning of centrifugal process, both the fluorescence
intensities decreased from 1 to 3  min ­(a2–a3, and ­b2–b3).
The decrease of fluorescence intensity (protein-like parti-
cles) showed that there was bigger gap between the sand
particles and then it is hard to produce frictional interac-
tion, so the main process was filtration function and more
free water were released. Then from 5 to 10 min (­ a4–a5, and
­b4–b5), the fluorescence intensity in centrifugal liquid was
rapidly increased even over the supernatant, it suggested
that the addition of alum sludge which contained inorganic
particles provides friction and squeeze for crushing sludge
particles even cell to release lots of protein-like particles
through centrifugal press. Finally, the fluorescence inten-
sity decreased again ­(a6–a7, and ­b6–b7), it may be con-
cluded that there was no space for frictional interaction
between the sand particles, and less protein-like organic
particles were leaked out. This process is probable a physi-
cal conditioning for sludge dewatering.
sludge to improve the sludge dewatering. Higher fluores-
cence intensity of protein-like particles infiltered water
through centrifuge reflected friction and squeeze between
inorganic particles and biomass, which likes physical con-
ditioning to improve dewatering.
Final disposal options of blended sludge
The final disposal options of the blended sludge would be
landfilling and building material utilization, according to
the experiment results. After the centrifugal dewatering,
the lowest moisture content was only 58% in the blended
sludge, which met the landfill disposal requirements in
China (≤60%). In addition, it can be seen from Table  1
that it also contained large amount inorganic particles in
the blended sludge, so the blended sludge could be used
for building material utilization. Though the sludge incin-
eration and land application of sewage sludge are the two
frequently employed disposed methods, the calorific value
and the contents of nutrient of the blended sludge are very
low. Therefore, it was not suitable for incineration and land
application.

Hypothesis for centrifugal dewatering of blended sludge

A schematic model was presented to interpretthe centrifu-
gal dewatering process through addition of alum sludge in
the sewage sludge.
Before the centrifugal dewatering, after the alum sludge
blended into sewage sludge, the residual products of PACl
acted as chemical conditioning to charge neutralization and
adsorb bridging in the blended sludge to make the sludge
easier dewatering. Higher fluorescence intensity of protein-
like particles in clarifying supernatant from blended sludge
proved occurring of chemical conditioning, which reflects
destruction or solution of biomass.
In process of centrifugal dewatering, inorganic particles
(sand) acted as skeleton builders and squeeze the blended
Conclusions
The goal of blended the two sludges was to improve the
sewage sludge dewaterability and reduce the dewatering
conditioners. In this work, alum sludge as recycling waste
material, which contained inorganic particle and residual
PACl and/or PAM, was obvious beneficial to improve
sludge dewaterability when it added into sewage sludge.
The SRF and the moisture content of the blended sludge
were significantly decreased and the lowest moisture con-
tent was only 58% after centrifugal dewatering. The EDS
results indicated that addition of alum sludge increased the
content of residual product of PACl and inorganic particles
in the blended sludge like Al and Si. The high protein-like

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428 J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018) 20:421–430

Fig. 7  Protein-like particles
3D-EEM fluorescence spectral
of supernatent and centrifugal
dewatering of the sewage sludge
(a1–a7) and the blended sludge
when blended ratios were
1 kg/kg (b1–b7) (the protein-
like particles fluorescence
peaks are located in excitation
wavelength/emission wave-
length = 320–400/400–480 nm)

13
J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018) 20:421–430 429
750
700
sewage sludge,
no alum sludge
650 sewage sludge,
1kg/kg alum sludge
Fluorescence (a.u.)
600
550
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
0 5 10 15 20
The centrifugal press time (min)
Fig. 8  Change of protein-like particles fluorescence intensity of
supernatant and centrifugaldewatering from sewage sludge and
blended sludge at blended ratios 1  kg/kg when the excitation wave-
length/emission wavelength is at 320/400 nm
particles fluorescence intensity in supernatant of blended
indicated chemical conditioning of alum sludge. The higher
protein-like particles fluorescence intensity occurred in
centrifugal dewatering process indicated physical condi-
tioning by inorganic sand from alum sludge.
Therefore, it was technically feasible to add alum sludge
in sewage sludge to improve the centrifugal dewaterability
of blended sludge. And adding alum sludge can reduce the
dosage of polymer and decrease the cost. Simultaneously,
it also decreased risk for using polymer as PACl or PAM in
the following waste sludge treatment.
The final disposal options of the blended sludge would
be landfilling and building material utilization, due to the
large amount inorganic particles and low the calorific value
and the contents of nutrient.
Acknowledgements  This work was supported by the National Nat-
ural Science Foundation of China (No. 51478433), Science and Tech-
nology Project of Zhejiang (No. 2010R50037), and Zhejiang Provin-
cial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LY17D030001).
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