MANAGEMENT, TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL OF SLUDGE PRODUCED FROM WATER TREATMENT PLANTS

Moustafa Abd Elmoniem Ashmawy

Abstract: The dewatering of suspensions collected in the water treatment plants is known as water sludge is becoming a critical issue in Egypt now a day as treatment of such sludge has become a must before discharging into receiving water bodies. In this research the quality of sludge produced from the different water treatment units such as clarifiers and filter wash water was analyzed. Experiments were conducted on various clarification processes including clarification by traditional clarifiers in circular and rectangular arrangement and pulsator clarifiers. Several parameters were analyzed to assess the sludge quality treatment requirements. Analyses showed that the filter wash water is recyclable water that can be safely disposed of in water streams or to be recycled back to the treatment plants. Sludge from different clarifiers included a high concentration of residual Aluminum that required further treatment. Application of Microfiltration and Ultrafiltration membranes in dead end mode for treatment of sludge from clarifiers proved high capability in removing the hazardous parameters and can be recommended for further treatment of the sludge

Keywords: Water Treatment, sludge, suspended solids, alum sulfate

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2016.0510017