title: A novel approach for improving the drying behavior of sludge by the appropriate foaming pretreatment.
abstract: Foaming pretreatment has long been recognized to promote drying materials with sticky and viscous behaviors. A novel approach, CaO addition followed by appropriate mechanical whipping, was employed for the foaming of dewatered sludge at a moisture content of 80-85%. In the convective drying, the foamed sludge at 0.70 g/mL had the best drying performance at any given temperature, which saved 35-41% drying time for reaching 20% moisture content compared with the non-foamed sludge. Considering the maximum foaming efficiency, the optimal CaO addition was found at 2.0 wt%. For a better understanding of the foaming mechanisms, the foamability of sludge processed with other pretreatment methods, including NaOH addition (0-3.0 wt%) and heating application (60-120 °C), were investigated while continuously whipping. Their recovered supernatant phases were characterized by pH, surface tension, soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD), protein concentration, polysaccharide concentration and spectra of excitation-emission matrices (EEM). These comparative studies indicated that the sludge foaming was mainly derived from the decreased surface tension by the surfactants and the promoted foam persistence by the protein derived compounds. Further, a comprehensive analysis of the sludge drying characteristics was performed including the surface moisture evaporation, the effective moisture diffusivity and the micromorphology of dried sludge. The results indicated that the drying advantages of foamed sludge were mainly attributed to the larger evaporation surface in a limited drying area and the more active moisture capillary movement through the liquid films, which resulted in longer constant evaporation rate periods and better effective moisture diffusivity, respectively.
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Zhao-Hui
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Guang-Ming
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Hui-Ling
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jing-Wu
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Hai-Yin
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Cheng-Liu
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Gou
mesh_terms: D017610:Calcium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D003890:Desiccation / Q000379:methods*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D012722:Sewage / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D012972:Sodium Hydroxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013500:Surface Tension
chemical_list: D017610:Calcium Compounds; D010087:Oxides; D011134:Polysaccharides; D011506:Proteins; D012722:Sewage; D012972:Sodium Hydroxide; C016538:lime; D010100:Oxygen