Influence of vacuum pressure,pH, and potential gradient on the vacuum electro-osmosis dewatering of drinking water treatment sludge

This paper describes research that evaluated the influence of vacuum pressure, pH, and potential gradient on the vacuum electro-osmosis dewatering (VEOD) of drinking water treatment sludge (DWTS). In the first phase of the VEOD process, a vacuum pressure of ?0.05 MPa was applied alone to DWTS for 30 min, removing almost all free water and part of pore water. In phase two, electro-osmosis was applied in combination with intermittent vacuum filtration, further reducing pore water and surface adhesion water in DWTS. However, statistical analysis indicated that the optimum dewatering parameter values were vacuum pressure at ?0.06 MPa, pH at 6.2, and potential gradient at 2.5 V/cm, which resulted in a relevant energy consumption of 0.35 kW.h/kg removed water.