Strict sludge regulations are met at the wastewater treatment plant in Germany as the Pumphead delivers performance and efficiency.
WD News: A WwTP in Heide, Germany has upgraded polymer dosing pumps in its sludge conditioning process with specialist peristaltic pumps to reduce maintenance interventions and polymer leaks it experienced previously with screw pumps.
In Germany, strict regulations for harmful chemicals, pharmaceutical residues, and microplastics mean the opportunities for reusing wastewater sludge as agricultural fertiliser are increasingly limited and sending it to a landfill is usually not permitted. This means thermal recycling is becoming more accepted as an effective route to sludge disposal, but the required dewatering and polymer dosing during the sludge conditioning process can add significant costs.
Identifying cost-efficiencies in the dewatering process can mean significant savings for wastewater treatment plant operations and a significant reduction in the amount of sludge produced. In the case of Heide WwTP, deploying a Qdos chemical metering pump from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions (WMFTS) to replace a screw pump has made a big difference.
The WwTP installed a Qdos 60 PU peristaltic pump, which is specially designed to dose hard-to-process polymers, and other hydrocarbons, with high accuracy.
Sludge is processed at a rate of 7m3/hour, and conditioning reduces volume by 80%, increasing dry residue from 0.71% at the beginning of process to 4.83% at the end. Each polymer dose takes around five minutes and occurs six times a day. The process needs a pump which can deliver this repeatability and is robust against polymer’s viscosity and resistance to pumping. Therefore, dosing pump reliability is critical to ensuring the sludge is thickened in a cost-effective and time efficient way. Qdos 60 PU peristaltic pump provided an effective solution, with no need for diaphragms, valves, or seals that could be clogged by the polymer.
Source & image courtesy: Watson Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions
