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Dewatering of Sewage Sludge

a
John T. Novak
a
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering , Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State
University , Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
Published online: 06 Feb 2007.

To cite this article: John T. Novak (2006) Dewatering of Sewage Sludge, Drying Technology: An International Journal, 24:10,
1257-1262, DOI: 10.1080/07373930600840419

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 Drying Technology, 24: 1257–1262, 2006
Copyright # 2006 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0737-3937 print/1532-2300 online
DOI: 10.1080/07373930600840419

Dewatering of Sewage Sludge

John T. Novak
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University,
Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

The rate of dewatering is usually measured in the lab-

Dewatering of sewage sludges is usually carried out using belt fil- oratory using a capillary suction time (CST) test or a fil-
Downloaded by [University of California Davis] at 12:40 07 November 2014

ter presses or centrifuges. The ability to remove water from sludges tration device that measures the specific resistance to
by mechanical dewatering is a property of both the sludge and the filtration (SRF). The extent of dewatering is usually mea-
equipment used for dewatering. Newer high-solids centrifuges can sure by the dewatered cake solids as the percent dry solids.
remove more water than a belt press but require a higher chemical
conditioning dose. The Gt value, the product of the mean velocity These parameters are described by Vesilind.[1]
gradient and the shear time, has been found to be a useful parameter
for characterizing the shear in mechanical dewatering equipment.
Dewatering can be considered a two-step process, filtration followed THE NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF WATER
by expression. The expression step is the most important of these IN SLUDGE
and the benefits of various sludge processing techniques and con- Based on numerous studies, water in sludge appears to
ditioning chemical types remains a fruitful area of research.
be distributed around and within particles. Therefore,
descriptions of water distribution in a sludge are seldom
Keywords Dewatering; Cake solids; Centrifuge; Belt press;
Chemical; Conditioning useful for predicting the extent of dewatering. For most
sewage sludges, water is considered to be (a) free, (b) inter-
INTRODUCTION stitial, (c) vicinal, and (d) chemically bound.[2] Free water is
water that can be removed by gravity settling. Interstitial
Dewatering prior to drying can be an important step in
water is trapped between particles, within the floc structure
the drying process because the drier the sludge solids are,
and within cells. Much of this water can be removed by
the less costly will be the drying step. Dewatering is usually
mechanical dewatering. In effect, this water is like that held
accomplished using mechanical dewatering equipment,
in a sponge. As the pressure on the sludge mass is increased
either filtration or centrifugation. For most dewatering
(much like squeezing a sponge), much of this water is
applications, chemicals are added to increase the dewater-
removed. Vicinal water is more controversial. It is believed
ing rate and improve the quality of the filtrate or centrate.
to be water held near surfaces, so sludges that have a large
At present, belt filter presses and the newer high-solids cen-
amount of surface, such as waste-activated sludge, will
trifuges are most frequently used for dewatering of munici-
have a high content of vicinal water. This water is unlikely
pal wastewater sludge. However, a number of other
to be removable except by drying. Chemically bound water
dewatering processes can be used, and some of these are
is likely to be small but will be removed by high tempera-
more appropriate for specific industrial sludges because
tures.
they can achieve higher cake solids upon dewatering.
Bound water was originally defined by Heukelekian and
The two factors that influence dewatering are the type
Weinberg[3] as water that will not freeze at temperatures of
and design of the dewatering equipment and the nature
20C. Although this method of measuring the bound
of the sludge to be dewatered. In this article, both will be
water fraction seems logical, it has found limited usage
discussed, but the primary emphasis will be on sludge char-
because bound water can be reduced by mechanical dewa-
acteristics that influence the rate of dewatering and the
tering to a relatively low fraction in sludge but cannot be
solids concentration achievable by different types of dewa-
entirely eliminated. Data from Katsiris and Kouzeli-
tering equipment.
Katsiri[4] and Subramanian[5] show that the bound water
typically decreases in activated sludge to a value of
Correspondence: John T. Novak, Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering, 419 Durham Hall, Virginia Polytech- approximately 1 g bound water=g dry solids. Using that
nic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061; E-mail: value, a final dry solids concentration of 50% would be
jtnov@vt.edu predicted. The data of Subramanian[5] is shown in Fig. 1.

1257
 1258
FIG. 1. Relationship between sludge solids and bound water content,
Downloaded by [University of California Davis] at 12:40 07 November 2014
showing the presence of a mechanically nonremovable water fraction asso-
ciated with the sludge solids (from Subramanian[5])
One would expect that drying processes would be needed to
remove additional water beyond the minimum bound
water content.
A more useful approach to characterizing the water
associated with sludge is to measure the cake solids using
a standard technique such as centrifugation at a specific
G value and time in a laboratory centrifuge or by pressing
the sludge using a standard dewatering device such as a
compression cell. This technique was used by Bullard and
Barber[6] to predict the cake solids they could obtain from
a belt press using a laboratory centrifuge test. A more
extensive relationship between the cake solids obtained
by gravity settling and by mechanical dewatering using a
series of laboratory devices was developed by Huang.[7]
The data from Huang are shown in Fig. 2.
The importance of Huang’s data is that they suggest
that each sludge will contain a unique ability to retain
FIG. 2. Comparison of cake solids by gravity thickening and selected
dewatering processes. All dewatering was by laboratory devices.
NOVAK
water and this will influence the amount of water that
can be removed, no matter what type of dewatering device
is used. Similar data can be derived from data in the EPA
Design Manual: Dewatering Municipal Wastewater
Sludges.[8] The EPA data are shown in Fig. 3. Therefore,
when considering dewatering as a preparatory step prior
to drying, the nature of the sludge will need to be con-
sidered when selecting a dewatering process. Sludges that
can achieve higher cake solids may be dewatered by a lower
pressure device. What the data in Figs. 2 and 3 suggest is
that a simple test, such as that proposed by Bullard and
Barber,[6] can be used to predict cake solids produced by
a number of dewatering devices. For some high-moisture
chemical and biological sludges, the use of high-pressure
devices such as a plate and frame press might be justified,
even though the throughput is lower than either a belt press
or centrifuge.
Haung’s data are for a variety of sludges. The high cakes
solids sludge that attains greater than 10% solids by set-
tling is a lime-softening sludge. The type of particle in lime
softening generally consists of crystalline calcium carbon-
ate with no water within the particle. At the low end, set-
tling to less than 1% solids is waste-activated sludge.
This sludge has water within the floc structure so the cake
solids attainable by all the dewatering processes are less
than those for all the other sludges. The other sludges are
a mix of chemically and anaerobically digested sewage
sludge. Each is unique with regard to the cake solids that
can be attained by each dewatering process.
The data in Fig. 3 also show that the cakes solids
attained by best presses and centrifuges are similar, while
filter presses achieve higher cakes. Also, the diaphragm
press can gain an additional 2 to 4% solids compared to
a filter press without a diagram. It should be noted that
since the EPA data were obtained, newer high-solids centri-
fuges have been developed and generate cakes about 5%
higher than those shown in Fig. 3. However, the higher
cake solids produced by high-solids centrifuges have been
found to increase the polymer conditioning dose compared
FIG. 3. Dewatering data showing the cake solids achieved by a variety
of dewatering processes (from USEPA[8]).
 DEWATERING OF SEWAGE SLUDGE 1259

to belt presses, and odor generation from the dewatered

cakes has also been shown to be a problem for high-solids
centrifuges.[9]

CONDITIONING AND DEWATERING

Most sludges require conditioning in order to dewater
effectively. The selection of conditioning chemicals has
been considered by Dentel,[10] and this reference should
be used for further information concerning the nature of
conditioning chemicals and laboratory testing for selecting
the proper conditioning dose. However, some aspects of
conditioning are central to dewatering, and these will be
considered in this section of the article.
Chemical conditioners are needed for most sludges in
order to achieve reasonable dewatering rates. These condi-
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tioners are either synthetic organic polymers or metal ions, FIG. 4. Determination of the optimum polymer conditioning dose using
the CST test.
typically iron salts. It should be no surprise that these con-
ditioners are typically used for coagulation of colloidal par-
ticles in water. The basic mechanism of conditioning is chloride) or combined ferric chloride and lime, but this is
coagulation of colloids in sludge. The importance of this less common.
is that conditioners generally do not increase the cake Because conditioning targets colloidal materials, the
solids, but rather make the dewatering faster. Although a conditioning chemicals have little effect on the ultimate
number of researchers have investigated methods to break cake solids that can be attained. Poorly dewatering sludges
up sludge particles and reform these to be more dense, may lose their water so slowly that some mechanically
this approach has not found application in the municipal removable water remains, so it appears that conditioning
wastewater industry. High-solids centrifuges create an improves cake solids. However, for a sludge that is prop-
extensive amount of shear, but the increased cake solids erly conditioned, changing the conditioning chemical will
compared to belt presses or the low-solids centrifuges not have much impact on the dewatered cakes solids.
appears to be due to the increased centrifuge speeds that
these units attain rather than shearing and reforming floc Conditioning for Specific Dewatering Equipment
with an increased density. Studies in our laboratory show The two primary types of equipment used for sewage
that even with high-intensity mechanical shear, particle sludges, centrifuges and belt presses, have very different
sizes cannot be reduced to less than about 15 mm in size. conditioning requirements. The two types of devices are
Dewatering rates have been characterized using capil- shown in Figs. 5 and 6. For the centrifuge, the sludge inlet
lary suction time, specific resistance to filtration, or a com- results in a considerable amount of shear. It has been esti-
pression cell. CST is most frequently used because of the mated that this shear can approximate a Gt value of
ease of use and simple interpretation of the data. The 100,000 to 120,000, where G is the mean velocity gradient
CST measures the ‘‘time to dewater,’’ and the readings (s 1) and t is the shear time (s).[13] In contrast, Lynch and
are in seconds. A readily dewaterable sludge will have a
CST less than 20 s, while some poorly dewatering sludges,
such as those from autothermal thermophilic aerobic diges-
ters, may have CSTs exceeding 50,000 s.[11] When using the
CST test to determine the proper conditioning dose, the
conditioning chemical is added to small aliquots of sludge
and the CST measured. The CST apparatus requires less
than 10 mL of sludge. The ‘‘optimum conditioning dose’’
is typically determined as shown in Fig. 4.
The data for Fig. 4 indicate that a polymer is used for
conditioning. For sewage sludges, cationic polymers are
typically used, and the optimum dose has been shown to
correlate with the point of zero charge.[12] This suggests
that particles that interfere with dewatering are negatively
charged and are likely to be colloidal in size. Conditioning
has also been carried out using ferric salts (usually ferric FIG. 5. Solid bowl conveyor discharge centrifuge.
 1260
FIG. 6. Belt filter press.
Novak[14] found that a belt press had a Gt of approxi-
mately 10,000 and a plate and frame press had a Gt of
30,000.
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The importance of shear is that the conditioning dose
has been found to depend on Gt, as is shown in Fig. 7.
The data in Fig. 7 are taken from Lynch and Novak[14]
and are for an anaerobically digested sludge. As can be
seen in this figure, the polymer dose for a belt press would
be approximately 100 mg=L, while the dose for a centrifuge
would be approximately 400 mg=L. This difference has also
recently been shown to impact the generation of sulfur
gases. The high-solids centrifuges will generate organic sul-
fur gases when stored that are 10 or more times greater
than that generated by dewatered cake from a belt filter
press. For this reason, the handling and storage of sludges
prior to drying is an important consideration, especially if
the initial dewatering is being carried out by a high-solids
centrifuge.
As is indicated in Fig. 2, the cake solids that can be
achieved by dewatering equipment depends on both the
type of equipment and the type of sludge. Therefore, rules
of thumb for cake solids should be avoided. However,
using current pieces of dewatering equipment, high-solids
centrifuges can achieve from approximately 2 to 7%
FIG. 7. Relationship between equipment Gt and the required polymer
conditioning dose (from Lynch and Novak[14]).
NOVAK
greater cakes solids than belt presses, although at a cost of
more conditioning polymer. Newer versions of belt presses
are under development, and these promise to produce
higher cakes solids, perhaps exceeding those generated by
centrifuges.
Filtration and Expression
Dewatering consists of two steps, filtration and
expression. These dewatering steps are shown in Fig. 8.
Filtration is the removal of water to the point where sludge
particles begin to contact one another, resulting in solid
pressure. Continued application of pressure once the nor-
malized liquid pressure decreases below 1 is the expression
phase where particles deform and water is squeezed from
both within the sludge particle and between the particles.
The amount of water removed by filtration alone is not suf-
ficient to generate dewatered cakes of the desired solids. In
fact, dewatering is generally quite rapid, and it is the
expression phase that is of importance in dewatering. How-
ever, most of our simple characterization methods, includ-
ing the CST test and the determination of SRF, focus on
the filtration phase. Measurement of expression has been
considered by a number of investigators, and these refer-
ences should be consulted for further descriptions of this
dewatering phase.[15]
What we have learned from expression studies is that a
number of factors can influence the expression phase. For
example, Novak et al.[16] have shown that increasing the
FIG. 8. Two steps of sludge dewatering, filtration and expression, as
indicated by cake height and relative liquid pressure (Novak et al.[16]).
 DEWATERING OF SEWAGE SLUDGE
applied pressure during dewatering results in slower
expression. This is thought to be due to the highly com-
pressible nature of the sludges they tested, which results
in deformation of the sludge particles in contact with the
filtering surface, creating what is called a ‘‘filter skin.’’
Similarly, the dewatering of thick cakes is much slower
than dewatering thin cakes because the expressed water
must all pass through the filter skin. This suggests that belt
filter presses that are operated with a thinner cake can be
designed to dewater to a higher cakes solids. Such develop-
ments are underway by equipment manufacturers.
To date, attempts to modify sludges using conditioning
chemicals to improve the expression phase of dewatering
have not been very successful. As shown by Novak
et al.,[16] the use of iron as a conditioning chemical can
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increase the rate of expression. However, polymers are still
preferred because they are much easier to handle and do
not add additional solids to the sludge mass. In addition,
a large amount of iron in the sludge may change its char-
acteristics for drying and influence its marketability as a
dried product.
More promising are various treatment techniques related
to processing of sludge prior to dewatering.[17] Predewatering
or predigestion treatment methods may have important
effects on dewatering. Most of these have yet to be investi-
gated for a variety of sludge types. Modified anaerobic diges-
tion techniques, such as sequential thermophilic=mesophilic
or the use of an acid phase followed by a gas phase, may
produce sludges that can be expressed at a higher rate than
conventional anaerobically digested sludges. Subramanian[5]
found that sequential anaerobic=aerobic digestion reduced
polymer conditioning dose requirements and improved cake
solids concentrations compared to conventional mesophilic
anaerobic digestion, indicating that in addition to improving
solids destruction and gas generation, some of the advanced
digestion methods can alter sludge properties, leading to
improved dewatering.
SUMMARY
Dewatering is a critical step in preparing sludges for
further drying. In this article, both the characteristics of
sludges and the nature of the dewatering device to be used
are important in determining the amount and rate of water
removal. Some sludges contain more water because their
basic particle structure is primarily a system of biological
polymers linked together to form a floc matrix, and these
polymers will have water associated with their surfaces and
within the matrix. These are typical of waste-activated
sludges from sewage treatment plants. These sludges will pro-
duce dewatered cakes that have a high moisture content, no
matter what dewatering process is used. A simple method for
characterizing this moisture holding ability was suggested.
Dewatering typically involves the addition of condition-
ing chemicals. To determine the proper chemical dose,
1261
we typically use simple lab tests, such as the CST test.
Conditioning chemicals usually act on colloidal material
in solution[18] and therefore have little impact on the moist-
ure held within sludge particles. As a result, conditioning
improves the rate of dewatering but usually has little
impact on the dewatered cake solids. The type of dewater-
ing equipment used and chemical conditioning require-
ments are linked. This is because some dewatering
methods create more shear than others, and the condition-
ing chemical requirements increase as shear increases.
Centrifuges are high-shear devices, and while they can
generate higher cake solids than belt presses, this comes
at a price of more chemical additives.
Finally, the expression phase of dewatering is most
important for achieving dry cakes. By focusing on
expression and the factors that limit the rate of expression,
we can better understand the limits of dewatering. Higher
dewatering pressures yield drier cakes but also greatly
increase the time required to achieve water removal. This
is because most sludges are highly compressible and high
pressures deform the sludge particles, forming a low
porosity layer next to the filtering surface.
It appears that improvements in both the rate of
dewatering and the amount of moisture that can be
removed are needed. This will continue to be a fruitful area
of research in the future. Further developments in dewater-
ing equipment and in conditioning technology will likely
lead to improvements in dewatering, but these changes
are most likely to be incremental and not dramatic.
REFERENCES
1. Vesilind, P.A. Treatment and Disposal of Wastewater Sludges; Ann
Arbor Science: Ann Arbor, MI, 1979.
2. Vesilind, P.A. The role of water in sludge dewatering. Water Environ-
mental Research 1994, 66 (1), 4–11.
3. Heukelekian, H.; Weinberg, E. Bound water and activated sludge
bulking. Sewage and Industrial Wastes 1956, 28, 558–565.
4. Katsiris, N.; Kouzeli-Katsiri, A. Bound water content of biological
sludges in relation to filtration and dewatering. Water Research
1987, 21, 1319–1327.
5. Subramanian, S. Digestion processes and their effect on dewatering
and bound water content of sludge. M.S. Thesis; Virginia Polytechnic
Institute & State University: Blacksburg, VA, 2005.
6. Bullard, C.M.; Barber, J.B. Effects of sludge dewatering potential on
belt filter press capacity and performance. Proceedings of WEFTEC
96 1996, 2, 151–158.
7. Huang, J.-C. Sludge characterization and dewatering, Ph.D. disser-
tation; University of Missouri—Columbia: Columbia MO, 1979.
8. USEPA. Dewatering Municipal Wastewater Sludges: Design Manual;
EPA=625=1-87=014. United States Environmental Protection Agency,
Office of Research and Development: Washington, DC, 1987.
9. Muller, C.D.; Verma, N.; Higgins, M.J.; Novak, J.T. The role of
shear in the generation of nuisance odors from dewatered biosolids.
Proceedings of WEFTEC 2004 New Orleans, LA, October 3–6, 2004.
10. Dentel, S.K. Conditioning. In Sludge into Biosolids, Processing,
Disposal and Utilization; Vesilind, P.A., Spinosa, L., Eds.; IWA
Publishing: London, 2001; 191–205.
 1262
11. Agarwal, S.; Abu-Orf, M.M.; Novak, J.T. Sequential polymer dosing
for effective sewatering of ATAD sludges. Water Research 2005, 39
(7), 1301–1310.
12. Abu-Orf, M.M.; Dentel, S.K. Polymer dose assessment using the
streaming current detector. Water Environmental Research 1997, 69,
1075–1085.
13. Murthy, S.N.; Higgins, M.; Maas, N.; Chen, Y.-C.; Troxell, J. WERF
Phase 2: Factors affecting conditioning during dewatering-influence of
dewatering equipment. Proceedings WEFTEC 2004, New Orleans,
LA, October 3–6, 2004.
14. Lynch, D.P.; Novak, J.T. Mixing intensity and polymer dosing in fil-
ter press dewatering. Research Journal of the Water Pollution Control
Federation 1991, 63 (2), 160.
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NOVAK
15. Lee, D.J.; Wang, C.H. Theories of cake filtration and consoli-
dation and implications to sludge dewatering. Water Research 2000,
34, 1–20.
16. Novak, J.T.; Agerbook, M.L.; Sorensen, B.L.; Hansen, J.A. Con-
ditioning, filtering and expressing waste activated sludge. Journal of
Environmental Engineering ASCE 1999, 125 (9), 816–824.
17. Lee, D.J.; Müller, J.A. Preliminary treatments. In Sludge into Bioso-
lids, Processing, Disposal and Utilization; Vesilind, P.A., Spinosa, L.,
Eds.; IWA Publishing: London, 2001.
18. Novak, J.T.; Sadler, M.E.; Murthy, S.N. Mechanisms of floc destruc-
tion during anaerobic and aerobic digestion and the effect on con-
ditioning and dewatering of biosolids. Water Research 2003, 37 (13),
3136–3144.