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US 6,444,124 B1Granted
System and method for improved treatment of wastewater
OwnerTheodore Onyeche, Michael Sieversinventors
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Abstract
A method and system for treating sludge in a wastewater facility involving a novel concentration step optimises the energy balance and sludge solids mass reduction incurred from concentration and low pressure homogenization of the sludge.
Claims22
A method for treating sludge generated in a wastewater treatment system, comprising the steps of:
- concentrating the sludge to increase the percent solids content by at least 1.5;
- selecting a desired homogenizing pressure based on an input energy required to disrupt the sludge;
- disrupting at least a portion of the cellular matter in the concentrated sludge at the desired homogenizing pressure;
- digesting the disrupted sludge to produce methane gas;
- and
- converting the methane gas to an available energy source that may be input to the wastewater treatment system, the input energy required to disrupt the sludge being substantially the same or greater than the input energy requirement.
3 more elements
A system for optimizing an energy balance associated with the treatment of wastewater comprising:
- a settling tank section disposed to receive the wastewater and produce a secondary sludge having a first concentration;
- a decanter section disposed to receive the secondary sludge and to provide a concentrated sludge having a solids content that is substantially greater than the first concentration;
- a homogeniser disposed to receive the concentrated sludge and to disrupt cellular material present in the concentrated sludge, the homogeniser operating at a pressure based on a selected input energy to provide a disrupted sludge;
- and
- an anaerobic digestion section disposed to digest the disrupted sludge to produce methane gas that is capable of being converted to an output energy substantially the same as or greater than the input energy.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.