A Cost Effective Operation and a Low Carbon Footprint for Solids Reduction Using Thermal Drying

Many communities are faced with considering a change in how their boisolids processing and disposal programs will operate in the future. This discussion is coming about due to many biosolids processes that were installed in the 1970s and 1980s under a different era of reuse and regulation and reaching the end of their useful life.To move forward there needs to be the establishment of objectives and goals that an evaluation is to be built around for the future needs of biosolids processing for the owner/authority. The evaluation should indentify the process that will be the most cost effective in capital and operation and maintenance costs. In addition, with today's concerns regarding climate change every evaluation should evaluate the carbon footprint created by the various processes.This is a case study of one evaluation done by the author that turned into a thermal dryer project that has now been in operation for over six years.