Sludge Dewatering and Drying Using Microwave Heating

Industrial and domestic activities produce large quantities of residual sludge. Nowadays a wide reduction of these waste volumes is necessary. Drying of the sludge which reduces its volume and mass is an important aspect for sludge management. The mechanical dewatering by pressure filters or cent...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Omar, Wissam N.
Format: Thesis
Language:English
English
Published: 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/233/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/233/1/549519_FK_2004_86.pdf
_version_ 1848838720507084800
author Omar, Wissam N.
author_facet Omar, Wissam N.
author_sort Omar, Wissam N.
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Industrial and domestic activities produce large quantities of residual sludge. Nowadays a wide reduction of these waste volumes is necessary. Drying of the sludge which reduces its volume and mass is an important aspect for sludge management. The mechanical dewatering by pressure filters or centrifuges is not always sufficient to satisfy new environmental regulations and a thermal drying step is often needed. Microwaves are electromagnetic waves whose frequency ranges lie between that of radio waves and infrared radiation. Microwave is of rapid, volumetric and selective heating source. This study describes the evaluation of the possible use of microwave heating as a new sludge thermal treatment technology and faster sludge drying and dewatering technique.In this study, a domestic microwave oven was modified and converted into batch microwave oven with continuous weight an temperature measurement. Four different types of sludge were microwave dried under different operating condition to investigate the microwave potential in drying domestic, agriculture, and chemical sludge. The study shows that microwave drying is more efficient than convective drying up to about 20 to 36 times and ohmic heating up to 2.5 times depends on the sludge type. . Microwave still slow and not efficient at final stage of drying or at low residual moisture content. Agriculture sludge (Palm Oil sludge) was dried faster than other types under microwave energy Volume of sewage and palm oil sludge reduces up to five times by the conventional drying process, eight times by the microwave drying process and eleven times by the incineration process. Microwave treatment show more stable end product than dried sludge but less than incinerated ash in terms of the leaching properties, and it is less than the maximum limits stated by US EPA for disposal of waste to landfill. Finally, the effect of the sludge type on the gas emissions during microwave drying was investigated. Gas Emissions fluctuates during microwave treatment of sludge. CO2 and SO2 emissions increase at the end of the microwave drying process due to the increase in the temperature and the burning of the dry sludge powder.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T07:00:02Z
format Thesis
id upm-233
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T07:00:02Z
publishDate 2004
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling upm-2332013-05-27T06:46:48Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/233/ Sludge Dewatering and Drying Using Microwave Heating Omar, Wissam N. Industrial and domestic activities produce large quantities of residual sludge. Nowadays a wide reduction of these waste volumes is necessary. Drying of the sludge which reduces its volume and mass is an important aspect for sludge management. The mechanical dewatering by pressure filters or centrifuges is not always sufficient to satisfy new environmental regulations and a thermal drying step is often needed. Microwaves are electromagnetic waves whose frequency ranges lie between that of radio waves and infrared radiation. Microwave is of rapid, volumetric and selective heating source. This study describes the evaluation of the possible use of microwave heating as a new sludge thermal treatment technology and faster sludge drying and dewatering technique.In this study, a domestic microwave oven was modified and converted into batch microwave oven with continuous weight an temperature measurement. Four different types of sludge were microwave dried under different operating condition to investigate the microwave potential in drying domestic, agriculture, and chemical sludge. The study shows that microwave drying is more efficient than convective drying up to about 20 to 36 times and ohmic heating up to 2.5 times depends on the sludge type. . Microwave still slow and not efficient at final stage of drying or at low residual moisture content. Agriculture sludge (Palm Oil sludge) was dried faster than other types under microwave energy Volume of sewage and palm oil sludge reduces up to five times by the conventional drying process, eight times by the microwave drying process and eleven times by the incineration process. Microwave treatment show more stable end product than dried sludge but less than incinerated ash in terms of the leaching properties, and it is less than the maximum limits stated by US EPA for disposal of waste to landfill. Finally, the effect of the sludge type on the gas emissions during microwave drying was investigated. Gas Emissions fluctuates during microwave treatment of sludge. CO2 and SO2 emissions increase at the end of the microwave drying process due to the increase in the temperature and the burning of the dry sludge powder. 2004-01 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/233/1/549519_FK_2004_86.pdf Omar, Wissam N. (2004) Sludge Dewatering and Drying Using Microwave Heating. Masters thesis, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Microwave heating Sludge bulking English
spellingShingle Microwave heating
Sludge bulking
Omar, Wissam N.
Sludge Dewatering and Drying Using Microwave Heating
title Sludge Dewatering and Drying Using Microwave Heating
title_full Sludge Dewatering and Drying Using Microwave Heating
title_fullStr Sludge Dewatering and Drying Using Microwave Heating
title_full_unstemmed Sludge Dewatering and Drying Using Microwave Heating
title_short Sludge Dewatering and Drying Using Microwave Heating
title_sort sludge dewatering and drying using microwave heating
topic Microwave heating
Sludge bulking
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/233/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/233/1/549519_FK_2004_86.pdf