Enhancement of sludge electro-dewatering by anthracite powder modification

Electro-dewatering of sludge has received considerable attention due to its low energy consumption for sludge deep-dewatering. However, prior studies have shown the resistance of dried sludge near anode significantly hinders electro-dewatering. The dewatering performance may be improved by reducing the resistance with the addition of conductive material into sludge. We conditioned municipal sludge by anthracite powder, an inexpensive product, to increase solid conductivity, followed by electro-dewatering. After running for 20 min under a constant voltage of 30 V, when the anthracite powder mass was 10%–22% of raw sludge dry solids mass (DS), the final dry solids content of the mud cake after dehydration was 6.2%–12.9% higher than that from dehydration of unconditioned sludge. The average filtrate flow rate ranged from 0.0243 to 0.0285 g s−1. The lowest unit energy consumption, 0.19 kW h·kgwater−1, which was 14% lower than that of control, was reached when 18% DS of anthracite was added. Our theoretical analysis indicates that properly increasing solid conductivity of sludge can reduce the adverse effect caused by the high electrical resistance of sludge near anode. The experimental results, along with the theoretical analysis, show that using anthracite powder for sludge modification is an economical approach to improve sludge dewatering rate and reduce energy consumption.