ELECTRO-KINETIC DEWATERING OF OILY AND PROTEINACEOUS SLUDGES

The current research using electrokinetic techniques was conducted in a 4 cm electrode spacing dewatering cell to dewater and remove oil from an oily and proteinaceous sludge. Different electric potentials, i.e. 10, 20, 30 V at the bed height of 4.5 cm and the initial bed height of 1.7, 2.6, 4.0, 5.2 cm under 20 V electric field were experimented.The highest water and O&G removal, i.e. 52.8% of water removal and 4.5% of oil removal, was achieved at the highest electric potential, i.e. 30 V. The height of the initial height of the sludge bed also played an important role in water and oil removal, the highest was achieved at the highest initial sludge bed. The removal efficiencies of water and oil were 49.3% and 3.0%respectively.