How to treat Sewage sludge in small towns?
The majority of the Water Treatment plant's production “wastewater” is sludge water from the sedimentation tank or clarification tank, as well as filter backwash wastewater, which contains impurities in the raw water as well as chemical residues added in the plant. For a long time, the sludge water produced in our country has been discharged directly into the river without treatment due to the influence of technology, capital, habits, and so on.
Although Water treatment plant sludge is not obviously toxic, it does contain certain pollutants, and long-term sludge siltation in the river will raise the river bed, necessitating a lot of manpower and material resources to implement dredging; additionally, if the sludge is discharged, it will be in the same location as the tap water source water intake, which will be detrimental to reducing the turbidity of the tap water and thus affecting the tap water quality.
1: Sewage sludge treatment on-site
Small town water plants can set up a separate sludge treatment system in the plant area to treat the sludge on-site if funds and site allow. The treatment procedure can be based on examples of sludge treatment projects from domestic and international water plants. In light of the current state of affairs in our country's small towns, consideration should be given to implementing a treatment process that requires minimal capital investment, low operating and management costs, and simple and efficient technology, with simple concentration, dehydration, and drying as the mainstay.
Natural drying with cheaper treatment costs, maintenance and management expenses can be utilized to dehydrate the sludge, given the economic level of small towns and the abundance of land resources near small towns in most places.
2: Combined Sewage and sludge treatment
The scale of water treatment plants in small communities is typically small. If a sewage treatment plant is nearby, and the sewage plant's treatment capacity allows, the water plant's sludge can be dumped directly into the sewer for treatment and disposal alongside domestic sewage. The sewage and sludge treatment facilities within can be omitted entirely or partially, which not only saves money on treatment, but also promotes sewage treatment to some extent by adding sludge from the water plant.
It should be noted that when sludge from the water plant is discharged, it must meet the sewage treatment plant's pretreatment requirements, which include limiting the discharge time, volume, and maximum total suspended solids (TSS) of the sludge, as well as taking into account the water plant's potential.
3: Processing in a group or Joint Processing
In terms of volume, water plant sludge is substantially smaller than sewage sludge. However, because water plants in small towns are small, the volume of sludge produced is limited, making it difficult to achieve scale effects in the construction and operation of treatment facilities, and increasing the project cost. In addition, the processing costs are higher.
As a result of this predicament, we should abandon the old approach and pursue extensive processing:
1.The sludge treatment of thewater plants can be incorporated into the urban water plant sludge treatment project design for combined treatment in suburban small towns within the planned region of big and medium cities.
2. Sludge treatment facilities can be built jointly based on the planning and optimization of the metropolitan area when transportation is convenient among multiple small towns with concentrated or continuous distribution.
Conclusion
Establish a batch of sludge treatment and disposal facilities that operate and manage according to market economy regulations, and conduct unified sludge treatment and disposal from numerous adjacent small towns and water plants.
Conventional treatment is the major treatment procedure after the sludge is concentrated, and the dewatered sludge can be landfilled or used as building materials. Treatment of sludge from water treatment plants can help small towns' water plants not only cope with technical and economic pressures, but also ensure that the sludge is correctly treated and disposed of, avoiding damage of the environment. Importantly, the high concentration of sludge in water plants creates ideal circumstances for large-scale sludge disposal and reuse.
Taking these considerations into account, Netsol Water can customize WWTPs,STPs and ETPs as per clients’ requirement. These treatment facilities require less maintenance and are known for producing water that is safe to re-use or discharge after treatment. We can offer these structures in a variety of sizes to meet the needs of our clients.
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