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Enhancement of sludge dewaterability by a magnetic field combined with coagulation/flocculation: a comparative study on municipal and citric acid–processing waste-activated sludge

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Abstract

The difficulties in dewatering waste-activated sludge (WAS) using mechanical devices have caused great problems in sludge transportation and disposal. Herein, coagulation and flocculation are combined with the use of a magnetic field as a clean and low-energy physical treatment method to enhance the dewaterability of municipal and citric acid–processing WAS. It is shown that the use of the magnetic field had a significant effect on the capillary suction time (CST) of municipal WAS but not on the specific resistance filtration (SRF) and CST of the citric acid WAS. The differences in the magnetic field effects were due to differences in the sludge properties. For municipal WAS, the particle size decreased, the zeta potential remained unchanged, and the viscosity decreased, whereas in the citric acid WAS, the particle size increased, the absolute value of the zeta potential decreased, and the viscosity increased. In addition, these effects were also confirmed with studies of the water state and micro-morphology analyses. It is shown that the acidification of the municipal WAS and coagulation of citric acid WAS were likely the reasons for the enhancement of their dewaterability, respectively. This study confirmed that the use of a magnetic field combined with coagulation/flocculation may serve as an effective sludge conditioning method; however, the treatment conditions may vary with the sludge type.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (41861124004) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M650493).

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Contributions

ND designed the study and wrote the manuscript; XW conducted the single-factor and BBD experiments and analyses, and protein and polysaccharide analyses of EPS; LJ conducted particle size, zeta potential, and viscosity analyses; JZ conducted including EEM analysis of EPS; YG conducted SEM analysis; LD provided advice on the design of the research; and HL conducted the data analysis of NMR. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ning Ding.

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Responsible Editor: Ta Yeong Wu

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Ding, N., Wang, X., Jiang, L. et al. Enhancement of sludge dewaterability by a magnetic field combined with coagulation/flocculation: a comparative study on municipal and citric acid–processing waste-activated sludge. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 35728–35737 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13278-x

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