Thermal sludge dryer demonstration: Bird Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, Buffalo, NY. Final report

Abstract

The Buffalo Sewer Authority (BSA), in cooperation with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (Energy Authority), commissioned a demonstration of a full scale indirect disk-type sludge dryer at the Bird Island Wastewater Treatment Plant (BIWWTP). The purpose of the project was to determine the effects of the sludge dryer on the sludge incineration process at the facility. Sludge incineration is traditionally the most expensive, energy-intensive unit process involving solids handling at wastewater treatment plants; costs for incineration at the BIWWTP have averaged $2.4 million per year. In the conventional method of processing solids, a series of volume reduction measures, which usually includes thickening, digestion, and mechanical dewatering, is employed prior to incineration. Usually, a high level of moisture is still present within sewage sludge following mechanical dewatering. The sludge dryer system thermally dewaters wastewater sludge to approximately 26%, (and as high as 38%) dry solids content prior to incineration. The thermal dewatering system at the BIWWTP has demonstrated that it meets its design requirements. It has the potential to provide significant energy and other cost savings by allowing the BSA to change from an operation employing two incinerators to a single incinerator mode. While the long-term reliability of the thermal dewatering system has yet to be established, this project has demonstrated that installation of such a system in an existing treatment plant can provide the owner with significant operating cost savings.