Optimizing Your Biosolids Dewatering

Biosolids dewatering has become a very expensive part of running a waste water treatment plant. Money can be easily spent or saved by any number of things. These things include but are not limited to: type of dewatering equipment, maintenance, polymer consumption, recycle solids, power, number of hours running per day, number of employees, cake solids dryness, etc. From the evaluation of these items and placing monetary values on them, the entire biosolids removal process can be optimized for the least expensive running conditions.The process of doing this optimization starts with knowing what everything is worth. You must first figure out the cost of how one pound per ton of polymer changes your bottom line. Also, you must understand how the cost of one point in cake solids, one man hour, cost per dewatering unit in maintenance per hour of running, and so on contribute. After these items are figured out, they must be placed in order of most affecting to the least affecting of the bottom line. Now the equipment optimization takes place.Two different pieces of equipment will be used as examples for optimization techniques and how different items affect this equipment. A belt filter press and a centrifuge will be used since these are the most common pieces of dewatering equipment in today's market place. The optimization examples will cover:How polymer affects performanceHow cake solids can be optimizedTips for running the different types of equipmentHopefully, the two examples and optimization tips will allow plant managers and operators get a better handle on their dewatering cost and performance of there dewatering operations.