Separation and Purication Technology 107 (2013) 166171

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Separation and Purication Technology

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Continuous thickening of activated sludge by electro-otation

Ali Reza Rahmani a, Davood Nematollahi b, Kazem Godini c, Ghasem Azarian d,
a

Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Health and Research Center for Health Sciences, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran Faculty of Chemistry, Bu-Ali-Sina University, Hamedan, Iran c Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health, Environmental Health Engineering Department, Banganjab Complex, Ilam, Iran d Faculty of Health, Environmental Health Engineering Department, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The present study was conducted for thickening of activated sludge by continuous electro-otation (EF) process. The effects of some key factors such as initial pH, current density, operating time, electrode type (stainless steel and graphite) and operation conditions on the sludge thickening by determine of sludge volume reduction (SVR) and sludge solid concentration (SSC) and as well as removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total solids (TS), total suspended solids (TSS) and color were investigated. The results showed that the process has a good efciency. The highest amount of SVR efciency (89.3%) and SSC (38 g L1) were achieved at current density of 8 mA cm2 in 15 min for stainless steel. Moreover, as surface/volume ratio increased, better thickening happened because increases both mass transfer and electro-generation of O2 and H2 at the surface of electrodes in low applied current density. Accordingly, consumed electrical energy was 0.151 kW h m3. Although suitable cell design is entirely essential, the use of chemicals and temperature increase are not effective. Consequently, EF is a comparatively appropriate process for thickening; in the water separated from the process, the amounts pertaining to COD, TS, TSS and color were respectively 112, 1601, 140 mg L1 and 5 TCU which are useable for subsequent different consumptions. Crown Copyright 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 2 September 2012 Received in revised form 3 January 2013 Accepted 8 January 2013 Available online 29 January 2013 Keywords: Activated sludge COD TSS Electro-otation Thickening

1. Introduction Sludge is an unavoidable waste product originated from the treatment of various types of wastewater. It contains all kinds of harmful substances which should be removed from the wastewater [1] including organic matters, pathogens and chemical contaminants, and needs to be processed to reduce its environmental and health impacts for later reuse or disposal. The treatment and disposal of sludge account for a major portion of costs of wastewater treatment facilities. Additionally, new standards have been established by environmental institutions and more restrictive regulations are enacted every year for wastewater processing [2]. The rising costs of sludge disposal facilities make indispensable to optimize those processes which are focused on the reduction of volume and mass, such as the thickening and the mechanical dewatering process. The main objective of improving the dewatering process is to reduce the volume of sludge in order to be disposed. This reduction will be directly reected on the cutback of sludge disposal costs of treatment facilities and it will reduce its environmental issues as there would be less sludge to be disposed off and energy used for incineration would also be saved.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 812 4222555, +98 812 4220659; fax: +98 812 4222233. E-mail address: gh_azarian@yahoo.com (G. Azarian).

Sludge thickening has been done by making use of common physical and mechanical methods including gravity-based sedimentation, diaphragm lter press, vacuum lter, Dissolve Air Floatation (DAF), centrifuge, and chemical processing (polyelectrolyte conditioners) [37]. Mechanical methods do not have a high efciency even when they are combined with chemical methods [3]. Chemical conditioners increase the volume of sludge and the selection of suitable chemicals and their dosages are very difcult because they are completely dependent upon sludge characteristics, dewatering devices and the experience of the operator [8,9]. Electro Floatation (EF) is one of the successful methods in different industrial applications to separate oatable materials and purify different kinds of solutions [1013]. It has been extensively used, by itself or along with electro-coagulation, to remove oatable materials including algae [14,15], oil and grease [16], surfactants [17], minerals [10], and latex particles [18] and etc. It is a separation process in which solids are separated from liquid. The basis of such separation is the generation of micro-bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen at anode and cathode surfaces. The upside of EF compared to other methods such as DAF is that the size of the produced micro-bubbles are smaller and their distribution is more uniform, more importantly, the creation of these gas microbulbs cab be controlled by current density [12,1923]. Various studies have been carried out on the thickening of activated sludge by making use of EF [19,20,22,23]. It is a very effective

1383-5866/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2013.01.022

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and suitable method for solidliquid separation of sludge with weak dewatering capability. The solids separated by means of this way contain very low amount of water in comparison to that of solids separated by the DAF method and secondary sedimentation tank. EF also plays an important role in nal volume sludge decrease [24,25]. The processing time for the EF method is much shorter in comparison with gravity-based sludge thickening ways [19,20], also EF efciency in thickening of activated sludge is 2.69.2 times more than gravity-based sedimentation [25]. It has been shown that a 30-min period of EF is able to decrease 57 84% of sludge volume, while the gravity-based sedimentation only decrease the sludge volume by 1.514% in the same period [20]. Moreover, the energy consumption of EF is 1640% lower than the DAF method and 4070% lower than the gravity-based method in treatment of oily efuents [26]. Previously studies [19,20,22,23,26] paid attention to the variables like the inuence of current density, electrode type, size of micro-bubbles, scale deposition and its control on sludge thickening. Most of these studies were performed on batch or semi-continuous ows and used expensive electrodes like IrO2TiO2Ti DSA and IrO2-coated titanium [19,2426]. In this study, a continuous ow system and inexpensive electrodes were used for dewatering and thickening of activated sludge in poultry slaughterhouse wastewater and hen-meat production. The effects of current density, operating time, pH, and operation conditions (e.g., temperature and conditioning) on thickening by determining sludge volume reduction (SVR) and sludge solid concentration (SSC) were investigated; The impacts of these variables on the quality of the water separated from the sludge were also examined. 2. Experimental 2.1. Activated sludge characteristics The samples were taken from the disposed sludge of the secondary sedimentation tank in the poultry slaughterhouse wastewater treatment plant of Goshtavaran Company, Hamadan, Iran. Because of high production of activated sludge and lack of an adequate place for its disposal, the company needs better methods for management and thickening of the sludge. The fresh, acquired samples were transported to the laboratory at 4 C and then were immediately examined. The characteristics of the used sludge were as follows: COD = 54007500 mg L1, TSS = 50506400 mg L1, EC = 12391542 lS/cm, color = 61 206 TCU, TDS = 580850 mg L1, pH = 6.97.4, TS = 5630 7250 mg L1. 2.2. Analytical methods The measurements of pH and conductivity were carried out with a lab pH-meter (Hach Co.) and a PHYWE type conductimeter, respectively. The color intensity of feed and permeate samples were analyzed by PerkinElmer Lambda 20 spectrophotometer. The method of open reux was used to determine COD. TSS was measured using gravimetric. The residue of suspended solids was dried at 105 C until the constant weight was obtained. The dried suspended solids were ignited at 500 C. The weight loss on ignition was reported as volatile matter. The specic gravity of solids was determined using pycnometer [27]. 2.3. Apparatus and procedure A schematic diagram of the continuous thickening of activated sludge plant is shown in Fig. 1. The pilot of the EF system com-

prised of seven main compartments. Thickening of the sludge was carried out in a continuous EF cell made of acrylic material with dimensions of 15 15 55 cm, with 11.25 L of effective volume. The procedure employed in this study consisted of operating the system with different operating times (540 min) (the ow rates of the pilot plant were in the range of 4.6837.5 cm3 S1) and using different kinds of electrodes, stainless steel and graphite. Five electrodes were used in each experiment. The stainless steel electrodes were made of plates with dimensions of 5 5 0.2 cm and the graphite electrodes had the dimensions of 5 5 0.4 cm. Both were installed at 6 cm from the bottom of the cell. The total effective areas of electrodes were approximately 267 cm2 for graphite and 257 cm2 for stainless steel. The distance separating the electrodes was xed at 1.5 cm. The electrodes were connected to terminals of a direct current power supply (Aram Tronik Co., Iran) with the range of 050 A for current and 050 V for voltage. A skimmer collected oated cake and transformed it to a separate tank. For adjusting pH at 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, and 9.0 buffer solutions were used. All experiments were donned at 21 3C. Two major parameters were optimized by on at a time method: the experimental run time (t = min) and the current density (j = A cm2). The removal efciency of TS, TSS, color and COD and SVR efciency after EF treatment was determined using the following equation:

R% 100 1 X EFT =X F

where XEFT and XF represent the measured parameters (TS, TSS, color and COD) and sludge volume in the EF treated solution and in the feed solution, respectively. Furthermore, the electrical energy consumption E (kW h m3) of the EF process for TS, TSS, color and COD removal was calculated using the following equation [16]:

E U J t EF =V EF

where U represents the applied voltage in Volts, J is the applied electrolysis current in Amps, tEF is the electrolysis time in hours, and VEF is the reactor volume in m3. 3. Results and discussions 3.1. The effect of initial pH In a recent study by Chen et al. it has shown that the pH of the sludge inuences the size of the micro-bubbles which are produced by water electrolysis [24]. Micro-bubbles with small sizes have a basic role in removing ner particles particularly where the sludge is made up of small particles, or when the sludge has been anaerobic and contains pinpoint ocs resulting in a resistance against sedimentation. Although SVR efciency occurred well at all pH values, the highest efciency was achieved at pH = 2 for both electrodes: graphite and stainless steel, which were 83% and 90.5%, respectively (see Fig. 2). Hydrogen ion and H2 are generated as a result of water electrolysis at the surface of cathode. In acidic pHs, the production of these agents is higher and consequently the thickening is higher. Therefore, pH = 2 was used for the following experiments. The obtained results in experimental conditions show the best value of pH. However, EF performance is good in all pH values; operators, in real circumstances and practical works, can apply neutral pHs (6.97.4). In this case SVR efciencies are 75% and 80.3% for graphite and stainless steel, respectively. It must be pointed that in this study buffer pHs were used to optimize pH value, thereby controlling pH changes to 0.1; otherwise, it was not controllable and its amount would increase by between 0.5 and 2; in this conditions the solution was not acidic. Over all for other kinds of sludge having different characteristics the optimum operating point will probably be different.

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Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of continuous thickening of activated sludge by EF.

100 90 80 70 60 50 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Graphite Stainless Steel

100 80 60 40 20 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Fig. 2. Effect of initial pH on SVR (%): current density = 7 mA cm2 and operating time = 15 min.

Fig. 3. Effect of operating time on SVR (%): pH = 2, stainless steel-5 mA cm2, Graphite-5 mA cm2, N stainless steel-10 mA cm2 and Graphite-10 mA cm2.

3.2. Inuence of electrode material Yong Goy Choy showed that there is no signicant difference between the performance of expensive titanium-coated electrodes and stainless steel electrodes in activated sludge thickening and the effect of current density on micro-bubble production is much more than the kind of electrodes [19]. Therefore, graphite and stainless steel electrodes, which are cheaper, were used in this study. Analysis of the performance of the electrodes with different current densities showed that in a 15 min period the optimized thickening point occurred at the current density of 8 mA cm2 with SVR efciency of 89.3% for stainless steel and 83.5% for graphite electrodes (Fig. 3). The performance of stainless steel electrode was slightly better than that of the graphite electrode. Additionally, for graphite electrodes with high current density the turbidity of the separated water from the sludge went up because the graphite was separated from the electrode surface as a result of electrode corrosion. Moreover, this electrode is brittle and non-shapeable which is considered as an important drawback in cell design. Regarding the effect of micro-bubbles size on thickening quality, greater removal of solid materials arises when the size of which is equal or greater than that of particles. The results concur with modeling simulations and show that collision efciency is higher when the zeta potential of one is negative and the other is positive and when their sizes are alike [28,29]. The life time of the electrodes is one of the main factors in the size of the generated micro-bubbles. The reason of such effect is the increase of roughness at the electrodes surface as the result of the sedimentation of magnesium hydroxide and calcium carbonate as well as the separation of some parts of electrode because of hydrogen ion production during water electrolysis. In a recent study, polarization changes have been applied to overcome this problem [26]. In addition to electrodes material, another parameter which is important in the efciency of the EF method is the size of the electrodes. The ndings show that the amount of produced micro-bubbles is proportional to the electrodes surface size. Therefore, the electrodes surface should be raised as much as possible. In this research the electrodes surface was intensied as much as possible through increasing the number of electrodes to 5. For a given current density, the production of the micro-bubbles will increase as the surface of the electrodes (surface/volume ratio) is raised. The production of micro-bubbles more both mass transfer and microbulb production and consequently better solid removal in low applied current density will occur. In a recent study, the electrode surface of 75 cm2 L1 with the distance of 1 cm for the electrodes has been used and the optimized consumed electricity of 0.25 1.5 kW h m3 for 530 min of electrolysis time was acquired [19]. In this research, electrodes surface was 113 cm2 L1. The optimized consumed electricity was decreased to 0.15 1 kW h m3 for 530 min of electrolysis time of sludge and the distance between the electrodes was 1.5 cm. 3.3. Inuence of current density Current density is one of the most important variables in water electrolysis. The more current density, the more micro-bubbles are

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100 80

(a)
Stainless Steel Graphite

60 40 20 0 0 5 10 15

20

25

30

Current Density (mA cm-2)

50 40

(b)
Stainless Steel Graphite

30 20 10 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

There was a direct relationship between the current density and the removal of COD, TS, TSS, and color. At the current density of 12 mA cm2, removal percentages of the above-mentioned parameters were 97.51%, 71.5%, 96.1%, and 81.96% respectively (see Fig. 4c). It should be noted that the only removal mechanism was EF and the proportions of the removal of the above-mentioned parameters are highly dependent upon the performance of treatment system from which the sludge is derived. When the sludge contains highly soluble materials and the particles are ner than the size of micro-bubbles, removal percentages pertaining to the above-mentioned parameters was seriously decreased. This indicates that in spite of high removal of TSS (96.1%), the removal amount of TS was 71.5% which is because of not omitting the TDS. Therefore, in the present study, in the water derived or separated from the sludge there was some amount of TDS and EC (1458 mg L1 and 1952 lS/cm), while the initial EC and TDS amounts were 750 mg L1 and 1439 lS/cm, respectively. The reason of such increase is as a result of the oxidation of organic materials into minerals at the electrode surface which has led to enhancement of these parameters. Based on the newly-done study the maximum of applied current density for sludge thickening was 25 mA cm2, and the amount of optimized current density was 10 mA cm2 [19]. While they were 20 mA cm2 and 8 mA cm2 respectively in these study. 3.4. Effect of operating time The highest amount of SVR was acquired at optimized current density of 8 mA cm2 and 15 min (passed charge of 7.2 C cm2), which for stainless steel and graphite electrodes were 85.5% and 89%, respectively (Fig. 5a). The increase of operating time, more than 15 min, did not result in higher sludge thickening because such increase, in practice, leads to production of extra useless micro-bubbles which went out of the solution uselessly. That is, its abnormal increase, more than the optimized amount, had no inuence on having more sludge thickening and wastes the energy. Additionally, the separated cake must be quickly extracted from the reactor because the rise of operating time and repeated production of micro-bubbles cause the cake enter the solution again. At the optimized current density and 20 min of operating time the maximum amount of SSC for graphite and stainless steel were respectively 37.6 and 41.4 g L1 (Fig. 5b). As presented in Fig. 5c, when the operating time was 10 min (at passed charge of 4.8 C cm2) the removal efciency of COD, TS, TSS and color were 97.7%, 69.35%, 96.39%, and 68.9%, respectively. 3.5. Effect of operation condition Water temperature is one of the most important environmental factors that might inuence for activated sludge dewatering and thickening of poultry slaughterhouse wastewaters and hen-meat production in the EF. A very important point to make here is that it has not to date been studied, so it is necessary to examine the effect of water temperature on dewatering and thickening of activated sludge. Of course, the increase of temperature seems desirable because it raises reaction speed and can increase the electrical conductivity of the water; thus, the applied voltage and electrical energy consumed would be reduced. In spite advantage of increase of temperature, the effect of this variable between 20 and 50 C in thickening activated sludge showed the sludge thickening was not improved by increasing temperature. It can be attributed to degassing of thickened sludge which is because of molecular motion increase in higher temperature and escaping gas trapped among sludge ocs. Another possible reason is that the ocs are broken in the temperatures higher than 40 C. As a

SSC (g L-1)

SVR (%)

Current Density (mA cm-2)

8 7

(c)
TSS COD TS TDS Color

70 60

Concentraon (g L-1)

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 5 10 15 20

40 30 20 10 0 25

Current Density (mA cm-2)

Fig. 4. Effect of current density on (a) SVR (%), (b) SSC in thickened sludge, (c) COD, TS, TSS, color and TDS removal in separated water for stainless steel electrode: pH = 2, operating time = 15 min.

generated which result in a better removal of the particles. The mechanism of water electrolysis and the production of micro-bubbles of O2 and H2 are given in the following equation [30]: At the cathode:

2H2 O 2e ! H2g 2OH

3 4

2H3 O 2e ! 2H2 O H2g

At the anode:

2H2 O ! O2g 4H 4e

As shown in Fig. 4a, the optimum operating point for the EF process and SVR efciency was the current density of 8 mA cm2 for both electrodes. The dependence of the production of micro-bubbles on the current density is non-linear. That is, increasing the current density beyond the optimum point does not increase the micro-bubble production proportionally and the extra energy is wasted in the form of useless heat. Fig. 4b gives SSC. In this work it was observed that the amount of SSC in the current density of 8 mA cm2 for graphite and stainless steel were respectively 34 and 38.2 g L1.

Color (TCU)

50

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100 80

100

(a)
Stainless Steel Graphite

80 60 40

SVR (%)

60 40 20

20
0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Time (min)
50 40

(b)

Poly Aluminum Colurid (PAC) Aluminum Sulfate

Ferric Chloride Without Sludge Conditioning

SSC (g L-1)

30 20 10 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Stainless Steel Graphite

Fig. 6. Effect of conditioning materials on SVR (%) in the optimum condition: pH = 2, current density = 8 mA cm2 and stainless steel electrodes.

Time (min)
8 7 80

Concentraon (g L-1)

(c)

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

50 40 30 20 10 0

35

40

45

Time (min)
Fig. 5. Effect of operating time on (a) SVR (%), (b) SSC in thickened sludge, (c) COD, TS, TSS, color and TDS removal in separated water for stainless steel electrode: pH = 2 and current density = 8 mA cm2.

whole in operational and real works there is no need to increase the temperature and it is not economical. The amount of solid materials in the separated cake in gravity methods was 3 g L1, while using EF in continues apparatus, such amount was approximately 41 g L1 which for later uses including stabilization, production of compost muck, burning and etc., is suitable. Of course, it was found that EF is able to create a high thickening of solid materials at about 30 g L1 [22,23]. Additionally, the experiments conducted in reactors with semi-continuous ow showed that the density of solid materials in separated cake, which was derived by EF, was 10 g L1 [25]. In order to reach higher thickening and optimized removal of desired parameters for sludge conditioning, various kinds of coagulants as poly aluminum chloride (PAC), aluminum sulfate, ferric chloride were examined. However, as can be seen from Fig. 6, not only did not it lead to a desirable performance on removing the solids and desired parameters but also an upside-down result happened because the ocs became heavier and also degassing of the thickened sludge occurred. The EF method with a continuous ow requires a proper cell design. Moreover, creation of a steady ow is crucial to prevent entrance of the separated cake to the ow. The removal proportion

Color (TCU)

TSS COD TS TDS Color

70 60

pertaining to the particles increases with the increase of both operating time and current density and it decreases with the increase of the sludges solid load. The use of continuous hydraulic ow and against to ocs thickening is an advantage because it is resulted in natural mix and an increase in effective contact between gas bubbles and ocs which improves oc oatation. Steady continuous ow is vital for stable efciency. Thichnieng operation can be controlled through adjusting current density. That is, for sludge containing high solids, when current density goes up, more micro-bulbs are produced and the efciency amount is maintained. Owing to the structure of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) of activated sludge, efciency is better when other parameters are constant which is on account of complex network creation of ocs in high solids that electrogenerated micro-bulbs are easily trapped into this network and consequently the thickening is improved. Of course, in the present study the load of solids of produced sludge in the wastewater treatment plant ranged constantly between 5630 and 7250 mg L1 does not exceed this range so as not to disturb the oatation. In the separated water from the continuous thickening of the activated sludge, the amounts pertaining to COD, TS, TSS and color were 112, 1601, 140 mg L1 and 5 TCU, respectively. These results showed that the separated water can be used for different aims. The gravity-based sludge thickening used in treatment system of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater and hen-meat production is carried out at a very long time span, several hours, and removal rates reach a maximum of 3848%. The performance of mechanical techniques which are on the basis of gravitational sedimentation, centrifuge, ltration, and compaction due to specic structure of bacteria cells in activated sludge and also the structure of EPS has many drawbacks even in higher pressures [3]. In the case of chemical methods, not only chemicals are added to the sludge but also they increase the volume of produced sludge and then the costs of operation and, more importantly, they require skilled operators [8,9]. Electro-thickening process has certain accessibility in terms of environmental aspects in view of the fact that electrochemical reagents are electron. It is a very eco-friendly process and as well as efcient in low time span (maximum of 15 min in this study); removal efciency is easily controllable through current density, and as well as consistent, and it does not require chemical conditioning before mechanical dewatering. Furthermore, in a recent work, it has been shown that for the virgin electrodes, EF showed ner and more homogeneous bubble size distributions and lower specic electricity consumption than did DAF and these ne bubbles are more proper in collision with and removal particles [26].

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4. Conclusion The EF process has a very high efciency in activated sludge thickening. The removal gures of the particles increased when both operating time and current density increased. In view of the fact that the only removal mechanism in this method is the otation of sludge ocs through electro-generation of micro-bubbles, the surface of the electrodes and as well as the distance between them were raised, thus, by applying stainless steel, without adding chemicals, in addition to energy efciency increase, SVR and SSC indexes were improved. A very important point to make here is that thickening through EF with continuous ow needs an appropriate cell design and creation of a steady ow is also necessary to prevent entering the separated cake into the ow. Acknowledgements We are grateful to Hamadan University of Medical Sciences for providing Research materials, equipments and fund. This project received nancial support from Vice Chancellorship for Research Affairs of UMSHA (Project No. 9004281666). In addition, the authors wish to thank Goshtavaran Company for providing activated sludge during the experiments. References
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