Electrocoagulation is applied to sewage sludge as a pretreatment process of an electrodewatering system to reduce the water content of sludge generated in wastewater treatment. The electrodewatering system, by incorporating an electric field as an additional driving force to the conventional pressure dewatering, has been evaluated as a function of an electrode material, applied voltage and filtration time. Experiments were carried out using sewage sludge with a pressure up to 392.4 kPa and applied electrical field ranging up to 120 V/cm. Mass median diameter of the sewage sludge by the effect of electrocoagulation increases from 34.7 μm to the 41.3 μm. The final water content of sewage sludge in the combination of both electrocoagulation and electrodewatering system can be reduced to 55 wt%, as com pared to 78wt% achieved with pressure dewatering alone. The combination of electrocoagulation and electrodewatering system shows a potential to be an effective method for reducing the water content in sludge.
Shin HS, Yeo CS, Byun SH, Lee JK, Development of the electroosmotic belt press for sewage sludge, The 4th Korean Conference on Aerosol and Particle Technology, Yong-Pyong, Korea, 63, 2003