MBR Sludge Dewatering: Significant Savings with VOLUTE™ Over Centrifuge
Dewatering MBR sludge to 12%? Isn’t that enough? Well, it depends.
Anyone who has dealt with sludge dewatering issues will confirm that industrial sludge, unlike municipal sludge, is full of surprises and can be a real challenge. Considerable similarities can be found within certain types of industries such as dairies but across the whole industrial sector, one can come across virtually every type of sludge that may exist.
Let’s look at an example we came across recently. The MBR sludge from a company that converts meat processing residues into a valuable raw material for animal feed production is particularly fine, with a suspended solids concentration of 1.2%.
If you manage to dewater such sludge to 12%, it seems that there is nothing to write home about. The 20% mantra is so far away. Well, this result looks a bit different when you know that the customer’s older centrifuge is achieving 8% at the same polymer dose but at a drastically higher operating cost. We have to remember that even if we dewater the sludge to ‘only’ 12%, we are still reducing the sludge volume by 90% and that’s what it’s all about.
We see more and more operators moving away from energy intensive centrifuges. Apart from the energy consumption itself, operators are not happy with the noise and maintenance costs. Our VOLUTE™ dewatering presses are slow running, quiet machines with extremely easy operation and low maintenance costs.
Energy consumption comparison Centrifuge vs. VOLUTE™ FS-351 dewatering press
| Centrifuge | VOLUTE™ FS-351 | |
| Installed power | 7,5 kW | 1,87 kW |
| Annual consumption when operating 24 hours per day, 6 days a week | 56,2 MW | 14 MW |
| Consumption in 10 years | 562 MW | 140 MW |
| Cost at a price of 88 EUR/MW | 49,456 EUR | 12,320 EUR |
| Savings for 10 years of operation | → | 37,136 EUR |