Biosolids Pretreatment

Pretreating wastewater biosolids can improve sludge quality - boosting efficiency and increasing treatment and disposal options. 

What is Biosolids Pretreatment?

Biosolids pretreatment includes removing sand, grit, and rags and tramp materials from wastewater sludge. This helps to improve the quality of sludge which provides additional disposal and treatment options and increases the efficiency of other sludge treatment processes. 

How Does the EPA Part 503 Biosolids Rule Impact Sludge?

The EPA Part 503 Biosolids Rule assumes that wastewater sludge does not contain grit and screenings. In an ideal world this may be the case, yet many plants continue to struggle with grit in their sludge resulting from coarse screening and / or inefficient headworks grit removal that allows these nuisance materials to enter WWTP sludge.

Why Pretreat Sludge? 

Plants with grit and screenings in their sludge benefit from pretreatment in virtually every sludge treatment process - from sludge pumping to the most advanced sludge stabilization, dewatering, thermal conversion or drying process. Grit and rags impact the quality and treatability of sludge yet they are unaffected by sludge treatment processes. This unnecessarily reduces capacity and decreases sludge treatment efficiency. Removing grit and rags from sludge requires taking the process offline to clean - a task that is difficult and expensive to complete - and can impact the operation of the rest of your plant.

Protect Your Sludge End-Products

Composting, land application, drying beds and heat exchangers may not be negatively impacted by grit. However, recognizable solids will make the end-product from these processes undesirable and can plug heat exchangers. As many plants upgrade sludge processes to maximize energy production, nutrient removal and disposal options, pretreating sludge to remove grit and debris maximizes efficiency and protects advanced sludge processes from fouling and wear. 

Sludge Degritting to Improve Sludge Quality 

Hydro International's SlurryCup™ / Grit Snail® sludge degritting solution effectively removes grit and sand from sludge while sludge treatment processes remain operational. For plants with ineffective headworks grit removal this robust system will improve sludge quality and reduce the abrasive wear grit deals to expensive sludge processing equipment and increases the capacity of sludge digestion processes.

Download a brochure outlining the benefits of sludge degritting with the SlurryCup™ / Grit Snail® System here

Sludge Screening to Remove Rags and Tramp Materials from Sludge

The Hydro-Sludge® Screen system is an in-line pressurized device that screens tramp material from sludge and dewaters the material in one operation. The enclosed system reduces odor problems and requires no washwater. It can be used to improve the quality of primary, secondary, and combined sludges.  It produces clean, dry output that allows for cost-effective disposal.

To learn more about the benefits of the Hydro-Sludge® Screen visit our product page.

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