A well-executed water conditioning stage to minimize sludge volumes paves the way for a successful dewatering. Handling sludge in a sustainable manner reduces volumes, decreases costs and makes the sludge odorless and hygienised. Kemira Water knows how to help customers manage this with the support of the patented solution Kemira KemiCond.
The Sludge Challenge
The costs for sludge treatment in terms of manpower, equipment and energy accounts for about 50% of the overall cost of wastewater treatment. Moreover, most end users require that the sludge be transported to another destination. Therefore, it is of great importance to increase the dry substance (DS), thereby reducing volumes and, in turn, cutting transportation and disposal costs.
The environmental debate puts wastewater plant operations under pressure to handle the sludge in a sustainable manner and naturally according to current laws and regulations. The need for sustainable treatment technologies and careful managing of our most valuable asset—water—is greater now than ever.
The treated sludge can be used in different ways—for agriculture, landfill, production of soil products and for incineration.
The Answer
The basic idea of Kemira KemiCond is to improve dewatering by breaking down the water-retaining structures that are formed in sludge. The solution is a fully automated continuous process, ensuring smooth operation and minimum workload requirement. KemiCond also decreases the customers’ operational costs through minimizing the sludge volumes.
In partnership with the customer, Kemira Water takes full responsibility for process design, assists in equipment installation, performs operator training, carries out maintenance services and cares for the supply of conditioning chemicals. For the mechanical dewatering stage, Kemira Water has ensured that KemiCond is fully compatible with all types of dewatering equipment.
The KemiCond standard unit is supplied in a 40-ft container—or alternatively as a skid-mounted unit—containing a control cabinet, reactors, dosing pumps, etc. The KemiCond standard unit is available in capacities up to 12000 ton DS per year. For higher capacities plant-specific designs can be made.
When the KemiCond solution is up and running, an optimization program and performance follow-up is done on a regular basis.
The Kemira KemiCond solution package for sludge volume reduction, odor control and sludge hygenisation comprises:
• Process design;
• Equipment;
• Installation;
• Operator training;
• Conditioning chemicals;
• Maintenance services; and
• Know-how.
