Electrode surface treatments in sludge electro-osmosis dewatering

Paolo Gronchi, Roberto Canziani, Andrea Brenna, Simone Visigalli, Carles Colominas, Francesc Montalà, Victor Cot, Aristide Stradi, Giancarlo Ferrari, Cristina Diaz, Gonzalo Garcia Fuentes, Argyrios Georgiadis

Research output: Indexed journal article Articlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The sewage sludge dewatering produced by wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) is a multifaceted process due to the presence of colloid fractions. Electro-osmosis could be a suitable technique to reduce the water content of the final sludge. Electric fields of 10, 15, and 20 V/cm have been studied for electro-osmosis tests under the pressure of a static or rotating piston, obtaining a dry solids content up to 40–45%, with respect to 25–30% obtained by mechanical methods. In order to optimize the process, the corrosion behavior and the wear of the anodic material appear to be the main critical aspects, due to the high circulating current density and the use of a rotating electrode. We compared the efficiency and the corrosion resistance of dimensionally stable anodes (DSA) with respect to bare stainless steel (AISI 304) and stainless steel coated by PVD technique with TiN, AlTiN, and DLC. Characterization of the anode surfaces by SEM and potentiodynamic tests show that DSA is the most suitable material for our application. However, efficiencies of the electro-osmosis processes have been found comparable, in terms of developed current densities and total energy consumptions, for short-test duration.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1265-1273
Number of pages9
JournalMaterials and Manufacturing Processes
Volume32
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Aug 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Anode
  • DSA
  • corrosion
  • dewatering
  • electro-osmosis
  • sludge

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