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UK Developments in Sewage Sludge Processing
Author(s) -
BRUCE A. M.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
water and environment journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1747-6593
pISSN - 1747-6585
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-6593.1992.tb00749.x
Subject(s) - waste management , sewage sludge , anaerobic digestion , environmental science , sewage treatment , sewage sludge treatment , sewage , sludge bulking , engineering , environmental engineering , methane , chemistry , organic chemistry
A considerable amount of research and development has been undertaken in the UK during the last 25–30 years in the field of sewage sludge processing. The research has been sponsored mainly by the water utilities with the objective of improving process efficiency and reliability and reducing costs. Government‐funded research has focused mainly on the environmental aspects of sludge disposal to land and to the sea. Finding ways of reducing sludge production has proved difficult, but one new method of sewage treatment has some advantages in this respect. Arising from the research on sludge processing, (a) new methods of characterization of sludge have been developed, (b) an improved method for the design and operation of gravity thickeners has been successfully implemented, (c) advances have been made in the process of heated anaerobic digestion, and (d) an effective system for aerobic thermophilic digestion of sludge at small works has been established. A new method for measuring sludge filtrability – the PFT meter – has been developed, and the economics of flocculation have been improved by the introduction of a new type of mixer. An improved method for controlling the operation of filter presses is now available. The problems of odour nuisance from sludge operations may now be controlled using biological systems to treat odorous air.