• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 2005

Gravity thickening process has been widely used in WTP sludge thickening at domestic water treatment plant. The operation method of the process is very simple, however, the process requires long detention time about 24~48 hours for sludge thickening, uses polymer, and low total solids of thickened sludge to increase sludge thickening efficiency. To solve there problems, we studied about flotation process, especially, electro-flotation (EF) process in WTP sludge thickening. Electro-flotation process is simpler than dissolved-air-flotation(DAF) process because EF needs only electrode and current to generate micro-bubbles and the operation is easy. This study was performed at two batch columns to compare interface height, total solids, effluent turbidity between an electro-flotation thickening and a gravity thickening. According to the result, an electro-flotation thickening was that interface height was decreasing, total solids had high concentration, and effluent turbidity was low in comparison with a gravity thickening. Also, it will make the high efficiency of following process, such as a dehydrating process and digestive process. because of high total solids and low moisture content in the sludge.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.764-767
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• 2009

For a more effectively designed gravity thickener, thickening experiments were conducted for residuals produced by a ceramic membrane water treatment plant (WTP). Two kinds of residuals, one from backwashing (BW) and the other from chemically enhanced backwashing (CEB) procedure, were separately collected during a pilot plant experiment and their limiting solid flux ($SF_L$) measured. Batch thickening experiments showed that the BW and CEB residual had $SF_L$ of 10 and $25kg/m^2{\cdot}d$, respectively. Continuous operation of a pilot-scale gravity thickener proved that a mixed BW and CEB residual could be successfully thickened at the solid loading rate (SLR) of $12kg/m^2{\cdot}d$, allowing the concentration of the thickened residual to be about $15kg/m^2{\cdot}d$. From the experimental results and consideration of the seasonal thickening characteristics of the residual, SLR of $15kg/m^2{\cdot}d$ was proposed as a design parameter for full-scale gravity thickeners.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.617-626
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• 2006

Compared with the sludge from gravity sedimentation, it is difficult for operations to settle the sludge occurred from dissolved-air-flotation (DAF). Even though there are some problems in treating DAF sludge with conventional gravity thickeners, those has been used until now. In this study, Solid Flux theory for gravity thickening was applied to the Solid Flux of DAF sludge through flotation in order to develop new methodology for treatment of DAF sludge. Also, characteristics of DAF sludge were investigated. From the experiment results, it was revealed that the higher the polymer dosage, at fixed the solid concentration, the greater the rising velocity becomes. When we applied solid flux theory, the relationship, which is similar to that of gravity thickening, has been achieved. Also, we could find the proper polymer dosage from the rising velocity is about 50 mg/L. Consequently, the limiting solid flux can be derived from the relationship between the total solid flux and the withdrawal velocity of DAF sludge. Furthermore, the factors, such as solid concentrations, bubble volume, pH, zeta potential, and temperature, have effects on the flotation and sedimentation for DAF sludge treatment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.295-300
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• 2005

The performances of electroflotation (EF) on the thickening of activated sludge were investigated using laboratory scale batch flotation reactors. Four activated sludges including bulking sludges were tested. After 30minutes of EF operation, 57-84 % of sludge volume reduction could be achieved by EF, while only about 1.5-14% could be obtained by gravity thickening for the same period. After thickening the effluent water quality in terms of TCOD, SS, and turbidity was improved by EF operation for all sludge samples. It is induced that the air bubbles entrapped in the thickened sludge play a key role in the observed improvement of sludge thickening and effluent quality.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.346-351
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• 2004

Because of being produced a great deal of excess sludges from biological wastewater treatment process, the subject regarding treatment and disposal of them has been significantly handled in real plants. It should be considered the alternative treatment with easy operating and cost effective process in rural areas. For the thickening of wasted activated sludge from small scale wastewater treatment facilities, thus, the provisional sludge thickening system was developed by the application of mesh filter module. Three meshes with different pore size(100, 150, $200{\mu}m$) were prepared for filter modules that were used to withdraw effluent from thickening system. A filter module with $100{\mu}m$ mesh was chosen as the most effective thickening material in the viewpoint of volume reduction and effluent quality: the volume reductions of initially injected sludge with 3,600 mg/L and 9,100 mg/L were 95% and 85%, respectively, and the filtered effluents were enough good to be shown below 1.0 mg/L of SS and 1.0 NTU of turbidity. Since the filtration of thickening was influenced by the cake layer formed on mesh filter module and this system was operated in the combination of sludge thickening with gravity settling, the filter modules with smaller pore size and the larger floc size were required for long term operation safely.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.97-103
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• 2006

Excess sludge treatment and disposal currently represent a rising challenge for domestic or wastewater treatment plants due to economic, environmental and regulation factors. Conventional gravity sedimentation process has been widely used in sludge thickening. The operation method of the process is very simple, but the process requires long detention time for sludge thickening, uses polymers, and shows low sludge thickening efficiency. To solve the problems, we studied on DAF (Dissolved Air Flotation) system. We use bulking sludge of a paper manufacturing plant. The effects of parameters such as SVI (Sludge Volume Index), storage time, initial concentration and wet density of excess sludge were examined. The results showed that the more SVI was low, the more sludge was thickened. As storage time goes by, SVI was increased and thickening performance was deteriorated. In order to improve flotation performance at high concentration, high recycling ratio and pressure did not increase the concentration due to thickening limitation. The addition of 0.8 g/L of loess was increased flotation efficiency of 1.41 times.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.77-85
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• 2002

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performances of the ASBR under critical conditions of solid-liquid separation, caused by extremely high solids concentration, for wider application of the ASBR to various wastes. The ASBRs and completely-mixed daily-fed control runs were operated using a municipal mixed sludge at 35$^{\circ}C$ and 55$^{\circ}C$. Conversion of completely-mixed daily-fed reactor to sequencing batch mode and changes in HRT of all ASBRs were easily achieved without adverse effect, regardless of digestion temperature. Solids accumulation was remarkable in the ASBRs, and directly affected by settleable solids concentration of the feed sludge. Noticeable difference in solids-liquid separation was that flotation thickening occurred in the mesophilic ASBRs, while gravity thickening was a predominant solid-liquid separation process in the thermophilic ASBRS. Solids profiles at the end of thickening step dramatically changed at solid-liquid interface, and slight difference in solids concentrations was observed within thickened sludge bed. Organics removals based on subnatant or supernatant after thickening always exceeded 80% in all reactors. Thickened sludge volume and gas production of the ASBRs affected mutually. Gas production increased as thickened sludge accumulated, and continuous gas evolution during thickening could cause thickened sludge to expand or resuspend. Thickened sludge volume exceeding a predetermined withdrawal level resulted in loss of organic solids as well as biomass during withdrawal step, leading to decrease in gas production ind SRT. Such an adverse mutual effect was significant in gravity thickening, while it was not sensitive in flotation thickening. Changes in organic loading had no significant effect on organic removals and gas production after build-up of solids in the ASBRs.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.109-114
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• 2012

In this study, both sedimentation and thickening experiments were conducted for residuals produced from an advanced water treatment plant for more accurate and practical design of residual treatment train. In order to design a backwashed residual sedimentation basin (SRSB) in the filter backwash water recycle system, two kinds of backwash waters, one from sand filter (SFBW) and the other from GAC adsorption bed (GACBW), were separately collected and their surface loading rate measured. In addition, in order to design a gravity thickener, batch thickening tests were conducted for concentrated residuals taken from sedimentation basin and their limiting solid flux ($SF_{L}$) measured. From the experimental results and consideration of the seasonal characteristics of the residual, surface loading rate of $70m^{3}/m^{2}{\cdot}d$ was proposed as a design parameter for SRSB and solid loading rate of 20 kg $TS/m^{2}{\cdot}d$ was proposed as a design parameter for gravity thickeners. Finally, the material mass-balance was made for the design of each unit process in the residual treatment train.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.677-684
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• 2006

Electro-flotation(EF), a novel sludge thickening method, could improve the dewaterability of activated sludge. The gas(microbubbles) generated during EF decreased the solid-liquid separation time below 1/5 of the time required for gravity sedimentation. In addition, over 90% of the sludge volume reduction could be achieved by EF although the settling characteristics of the sludge was very poor. The SRF(specific resistance to filtration) of the thickened sludge by EF was much lower than that of the sludge thickened by gravity sedimentation. The SRF of the thickened sludge decreased exponentially with increase of gas generation rate of the EF system. Gas generation rate could be controlled by varying the current density of the electrode. Degasing of the microbubbles by vigorous mixing of the thickened sludge layer deteriorated the dewaterability of the sludge. Therefore, it is obvious that the gas bubbles entrapped in the thickened sludge play a key role in the observed dewaterability improvement.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 1992

Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge by the anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) was investigated to evaluate the performance of the ASBR process at a critical condition of high-solids-content fined. The reactors were operated at an HRT of 10 days with an equivalent loading rate of 0.8-1.5 gVS/L/d at 35$^{\circ}C$ The main conclusions drawn from this study were as follows: 1. Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge was possible using the ASBR in spite of high concentration of settleable solids in the sludge. The ASBRS with 3- and 4-day cycle period showed almost identical high digestion performances. 2. No adverse effect on digestion stability was observed In the ASBRS in spite of withdrawal and replenishment of 30% or 40% of liquid contents. A conventional anaerobic digester could be easily converted to the ASBR without any stability problem. 3. Flotation thickening occurred in thicken step of the ASBRS throughout steady state, and floating bed volume at the end of thicken period occupied about 70% of the working volume of the reactor Efficiency of flotation thickening in the ASBRS could be comparable to that of additional gravity thickening of a completely mixed digester. 4. Solids were accumulated rapidly in the ASBR during start-up period. Solids concentrations in the ASBRS were 2.6 times higher than that in the completely mixed control reactor at steady state. Dehydrogenase activity had a strong correlation with the solids concentration. Dehydrogenase activity of the digested flu형e in the ASBR was 2.9 times higher than that of the flu형e in the control reactor, and about 25 times higher than that of the subnatant in the ASBR. 5. Remarkable increase in equivalent gas production of 52% was observed at the ASBRS compared with the control reactor in spite of similar quality of clarified effluent from the ASBRS and control reactor. The increase in gas production from the ASBRS was believed to be combined results of accumulation of microorganisms, higher driving force applied, and additional long-term degradation of organics continuously accumulated.