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Proof of Sludge Production rate:

Sludge Dewatering

The solids removed during the treatment of wastewater, previously referred to as sludg but now referred to as biosolids, represent a nutrient-rich byproduct. In the most gener view biosolids can be applied to land as a fertilizer and to improve soil quality. Its ha find a firm number but most estimates indicate that 5 to 7 million tons of biosolids are generated in the United States each year. Turovskiy and Mathai state the following: Approximately 6.3 million metric tons (6.9 million U.S. tons) (dry solid weight) of municipal wastewater sludge was produced in the United States in 1998 (U.S. EPA, 19 This is projected to increase to 6.9 million and 7.4 million metric dry tons (7.6 million 8.2 million U.S. dry tons) in the years 2005 and 2010, respectively. Figure 1 shows the estimates of biosolids use and disposal in 1998. Figure 1: Estimates of biosolids use and disposal.

The data used to generate the pie chart in Figure 1 is also shown in Table 1. Table 1: Estimates of biosolids use and disposal.

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Sludge or biosolids disposal typically represents the highest cost component for a wastewater treatment facility accounting for 40 to 50% of the total wastewater budget. Disposal requires sludge thickening and dewatering in addition to the use of chemicals

(e.g., polymer). Figure 2 shows options available for thickening and dewatering. Figure 2: Sludge Handling Options

Under the best sludge thickening scenario you can achieve about 8% solids concentrat before dewatering. A more typical value is in the 3 to 5% range. Sludge dewatering ca increase the solids content to around 35% and drying (sludge drying beds, incineration can remove additional moisture as shown in Figures 3 and 4. Figure 3: Thickening, Dewatering, and Drying

Figure 4: Thickening, Dewatering, and Drying

For municipal wastewater plants sludge production will typically be 0.8 to dry tons per million gallons of wastewater treated. So a rule of thumb wou be 1.0 dry ton/MG. This is a very loose rule of thumb for municipal plants which makes it almost impossible to apply to industrial wastewater faciliti whose sludge generation varies widely from industry to industry. For example, sludge generation at an automotive manufacturing plant is going be much, much less than sludge generation at a pulp and paper mill.

There are basically three types of sludge produced in wastewater treatment as follows: 1) Primary sludge which is simply the solids removed during primary clarification.

2) Secondary or biological sludge which is the excess sludge (waste activated sludge produced during biological treatment. A municipal plant will produce more waste acti sludge than the automotive plant but less than an industrial plant treating food waste.

3) Chemical sludge generated primarily at industrial wastewater plants. This is the slu generation component that can significantly skew the attempt to estimate solids production. For example, what comes to mind is an industrial facility that treats wastewater flow from two different industries: a refinery and a chemical plant. Sludge production is at a minimum when flow is coming only from the refinery. In this case th microorganisms arent particularly thrilled with high levels of ammonia, sulfide, and phenol, for example. In this case sludge dewatering takes places only several days a w on one shift. But when the chemical plant is in operation they contribute a large amoun lime sludge. In this case dewatering takes place seven days a week, 24 hours per day. A key source for the information on this page was:

Turovskiy, Izrail S. and P. K. Mathai. Wastewater Sludge Processing. Hoboken, NJ: J Wiley & Sons, Inc.: 2006.