The sewage sludge dewatering produced by Wastewater Treatment Plants is a multifaceted process due to the presence of colloid fractions. Electro-osmosis could be a suitable technique to reduce the water content of the final sludge. Electric fields of 10 V/cm, 15 V/cm and 20 V/cm have been studied for electro-osmosis tests under the pressure of a static or rotating piston, obtaining a dry solids content up to 40-45%, with respect to 25-30% obtained by mechanical methods. In order to optimise the process, the corrosion behaviour and the wear of the anodic material appear the main critical aspects, due to the high circulating current density and the use of a rotating electrode. We compared the efficiency and the corrosion resistance of dimensionally stable anodes (DSA) with respect to bare stainless steel (AISI 304) and stainless steel coated by PVD technique with TiN, AlTiN and DLC. Characterization of the anode surfaces by SEM and potentiodynamic tests, show that DSA is the most suitable material for our application. However, efficiencies of the electro-osmosis processes have been found comparable, in terms of developed current densities and total energy consumptions, for short-test duration.Keywords: electro-osmosis; dewatering; sludge; DSA; anode; corrosion.
IntroductionThe so-called "activated sludge process" is adopted by almost the totality of urban and industrial wastewater treatment plants to achieve the concentration limits of biodegradable pollutants stated by the law to allow the discharge of treated effluents to natural water bodies (rivers, lakes and the sea).About half of the organic pollution load treated by the activated sludge process is oxidised and converted into water and carbon dioxide, while the remaining is converted into biomass, called "excess biological sludge" or "waste sludge". After reducing both the content of biodegradable matter and the water content through mechanical dewatering or thermal drying, the sludge becomes a product suitable for its final disposal.When compared with thermal (evaporative) processes for water reduction, mechanical dewatering is often selected due to its low energy requirement. The processes of mechanical dewatering are largely developed on the industrial scale and can produce sludge with 20-25% of dry solid (DS) content and, in some cases, up to 30%. However, the high DS values demanded for thermal valorisation of sludge cannot be achieved by mechanical dewatering techniques. , and Tuan et al. [10] reported that the pH drop relates to the reduction of the absolute value of the zeta potential, thus the decrease in pH (specifically at the anode) reduced the electro-osmotic flow during direct current application [1, 5,8,11].The oxidation of the anode material, due to oxygen evolution, ohmic heating and pH decrease, reduces the process efficiency [12] and can cause in some applications the contamination of the filter cake or filtrate, increasing the operating cost. Anodes such as stainless steel will be subject to