Large amounts of sludge are generated from wastewater treatment in seafood processing industries. Most of the dewatered sludge in Thailand is not utilized and disposed by landfilling. The dried sludge utilization as refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is an alternative solution due to the gross calorific value (GCV), which is greater than 21.9 MJ/kg. However, the key obstacle is its high moisture content of 87.4% (wet basis). Therefore, drying methods using hot air and microwave techniques were investigated for preparing dried sludge. The effects of hot air temperatures (100-150 °C) and microwave power levels (100-800 W) were compared on drying kinetics, specific energy consumption (SEC), and characteristics of the dried products. The results showed that drying times were decreased by increasing the hot air temperatures. In the same way, the increase in microwave power levels decreased the drying time. The application of microwaves contributed to reducing the drying time by more than 46% compared to the hot air. The reduction of drying times resulted in the saving SEC. The GCV of the dried sludge decreased with the decrease in the volatile matter (VM) due to the high component of VM as 79.5-80.3% (dry ash-free basis). The sludge dried by the microwaves showed a lower GCV than the hot air products. However, dried sludges still had high GCV (≥ 20.8 MJ/kg). Furthermore, the minimal variation of the product characteristics demonstrated that the microwave technique could be applied as an alternative drying method with a rapid process compared to the conventional hot air technique.