Proceedings

Conventionally, dewatering a very thin sludge to make cake has involved a separate pre-thickening stage ahead of a dewatering machine to reduce the volume to be dewatered. In these systems both the thickening stage and the dewatering stage require their own polymer addition.  The latest version of the VOLUTE dewatering press has been designed to take thin sludge and dewater directly to cake with a single addition of polymer.  There are numerous benefits to be gained from this concept, such as low total polymer consumption compared to double dosing, reduced CAPEX, reduced OPEX, space saving, simple operation and increased Phosphorus capture rate. The installation at Persley STW in Aberdeenshire, taking sludge at 0.4%DS directly to 22%DS cake, is the first of its kind in the UK.  Other work by AMCON, through joint research with the Japanese Sewage Works Agency, will be presented showing why this philosophy has become the standard wastewater treatment plant design for small scale WwTW in Japan.