Development and Performance Evaluation of Electrodewatering System for Sewage Sludge Recycling

A laboratory-scale electrodewatering system for enhancing conventional filter pressure dewatering by an electric field has been developed to decrease the water content of sludge generated in the wastewater treatment. It consists of a piston-typed filter press, a power supply and data acquisition system. The offset of electrodewatering is investigated as a function of applied pressure, applied voltage, sludge type and filtration time. Also the optimal conditions for maximizing the dewatering efficiency in the eletrodewatering system are investigated. Electric field strength and mechanical pressure are in the range of from 0 to 120 V/cm and from 98.1 to 392.4 kPa. The dewatering rates increased with increasing electric strength. These experiments produced a final sludge cake with water content of 60 wt% using electrodewatering technology, compared with a 80 wt% using pressure filtration alone. The conventional filtration system using the electrodewatering shows the potential to be effective method for improving dewatering Sludge.