The first full-scale plant for sludge disintegration through Cambi thermal hydrolysis was started up in Hamar, Norway at the end of 1995. It is the first plant with a new design where sludge is directly heated by live steam. During the last three years the plant worked with an availability of over 99%. Prior to hydrolysis the sludge is dewatered and the digester is fed with 10-12% DS, saving more than 50% of digester volume compared with a conventional process. The degree of stabilization is around 60% measured as rate COD-conversion into biogas. The stabilised sludge, which is guaranteed free of pathogens, is an attractive product to agriculture and has a high fertilizing effect.
Experiments were carried out to investigate the removal of humic substances from highly coloured raw water (50 mg Pt/L) by coagulation and outside-in hollow-fibre membrane filtration. Chitosan, a cationic biopolymer produced from crustacean shells, and polyaluminium chloride (PACl) were used as coagulants. The rate of permeability decline was determined for different backwash frequencies and different fluxes at a 95% water recovery of the membrane. Coagulation with PACl gave a good and consistent permeate quality with removals of 95.6%, 84.9%, and 66.1% for true colour, UV absorbers, and dissolved organic carbon, respectively. Longer filtration intervals with less frequent backwashing as well as lower specific aluminium dosages increased the rate of permeability decline. The particle size distribution in the retentate tank was not affected by the frequency of backwashing. Chitosan was less effective in coagulating humic substances and the removal efficiencies were notably lower. Preliminary results suggest that the permeability declines somewhat faster for chitosan compared to PACl-coagulated water.
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