Analysis the performance of chemical and physical additives to reduce shrinkage of drinking water treatment sludge (DWTS)

Abstract

Water is one of the basic human needs and the country has the main responsibility to confirm their citizens’ provision to safe water. Most of the countries in the world supply treated water to the country through water treatment plants. In drinking water treatment plants, solid sludge is generated at the end of the water treatment process as a waste product which is now becoming a global problem. In previous studies, shrinkage was identified as the major problem of drinking water treatment sludge (DWTS), accrued when use it as a raw material. This study was conducted to analyze the performance of both chemical and physical additives, to identify the possible additive to overcome the shrinkage of DWTS. In the study eight mixtures were prepared by adding Styrene Acrylic Binder as the chemical additive and sand and sugarcane fiber as physical additives separately and together and volumetric shrinkage of each mix was measured weekly. According to the results of this study it was concluded as, shrinkage of DWTS can be reduced by adding physical additives. Physical additives perform more effectively than chemical additives in the reduction of shrinkage of DWTS. Further studies are required to find the optimum mixing ratios of physical additives to optimize the performances.