Drying enhancement of sludge with resin-type drying accelerator and its mechanism

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For energy utilization of high moisture content sludge, energy saving in the sludge drying process is the first priority, since energy consumption required for drying is extremely large. To develop simple and energy saving sludge drying process applicable to small facilities, sludge drying technique using drying accelerator was newly proposed and the drying experiment of sludge mixed with a small amount of drying accelerators was carried out. In this experiment, resin solution and surfactant agent was used as the drying accelerator, which had demonstrated sludge drying enhancement, and the effect of drying accelerator addition on the sludge drying behavior and drying mechanism was evaluated by measuring the weight loss, surface contact angle and deformation size of the drying sample. There were significant differences in the drying behavior depending on drying accelerator types. Surface contact angle increased with the development of water repellency immediately after drying when the resin type accelerator was used. Whereas, surfactant agent remained the sample surface hydrophilic regardless of the dryness. The addition of resin solution prevented the warpage of the sample caused by moisture distribution inside of the sample, since resin addition enhanced internal water migration. Besides the addition of a small amount of surfactant agent to the resin had a further enhancement effect on the surface drying and internal water migration of the sample by remedying the resin dispersion in the sludge.