water-link makes its sludge dewatering 50% cheaper with GEA
“Why are we still outsourcing our sludge dewatering?”, water-link was wondering in early 2012. Together with GEA, the Antwerp water company has built a container with a polymer make-up unit and a decanter centrifuge to optimise sludge dewatering. “Our sludge dewatering/transport operations are now automated and we’re saving half of our operating costs,” says Sven Kempeneers, Process Engineer at water-link. He sums up the 6 wins the installation of the decanter yielded for water-link.
Optimum Thickening
GEA Decanters as Pioneers for Thermal Hydrolysis of Sewage Sludge. Simple equation: before fermentation, the sewage sludge is broken down by means of high pressure and high temperatures, the structures are destroyed and the water from inside the cells is released. This digestion process makes the naturally occurring cell polymers an easily digestible substrate and the larger surface allows better decomposition by the fermenting bacteria.