Drying Characteristics and Odor Concentration in Tail Gas in Vacuum Drying of Municipal Sewage Sludge

School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

^a* sunxf@seu.edu.cn
^b* gsf@seu.edu.cn
^c yuyangseu@seu.edu.cn
^d zqx9@seu.edu.cn

Abstract

As one of the most common solid wastes, municipal sewage sludge needs to be dried before its disposal and resource reuse. In this study, the effects of vacuum degree, heat source temperature and sludge thickness on drying rate and odor concentration in tail gas were studied through orthogonal experiments carried out on the lab-scale vacuum heat-conductive sludge drying device; The effects of heat source temperature on drying rate and odor concentration in tail gas were studied through comparative experiments of atmospheric state and vacuum state (-0.08MPa). The results show that the sludge thickness is the main factor affecting the sludge static drying rate, and the vacuum degree is the main factor affecting the odor concentration in the tail gas of sludge static drying. Under vacuum state (-0.08MPa), sludge can be dried efficiently while using low-grade heat source. In addition, while maintaining a high drying rate, the odor concentration in the tail gas will also be significantly reduced by reducing the generation of volatile sulphur compounds (VSCs).