Applying Mechanical Sludge Dewatering with Wood Chips to Foster Sustainability in Wastewater Treatment Plants

The rising volume of sludge production poses significant environmental threats. Sludge has a high moisture content (MC), which increases its disposal and transport expenses. On the other hand, sludge has low dewaterability due to its high concentration of soluble organic compounds. To reduce sludge production, understanding and improving preconditioning and mechanical dewatering are crucial for breakthroughs in advanced sludge dewatering. The sludge samples used in this analysis were obtained from the Sarabium municipal wastewater treatment plant, with a moisture content of 97% and a specific filtration resistance (SRF) of 9.15463 × 10¹⁵ m/kg. Sludge dewatering was enhanced by treating the samples chemically with ferric chloride, aluminum sulfate, Moringa olifera, and cationic polyacrylamide CPAM and physically with wood chips, slag, rice husk, and wheat straw. The experiments examined the sludge’s initial characterization (specific resistance to filtration (SRF) and time to filtrate (TTF)). To verify the structural characteristics (density), elemental composition, and the presence of various functional groups, a characterization investigation was conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The results showed that chemical conditioning with ferric chloride is better than aluminum sulfate and Moringa. Wood chips also provide better results for physical conditioning than rice husk, wheat straw, and slag. The reaction occurred at the carbonyl group, where FTIR showed more activated sites during SEM analysis, as evidenced by the FTIR results. Still, when CPAM was added to conditioned sludge, there was no difference in sludge dewatering performance, and the activated sites remained unchanged. Hence, this research found that mechanical sludge dewatering was improved by conditioning with ferric chloride (pH of 6 and dose of 0.12 g/g of dry solid) and wood chips (dose of 1.5 g/g of dry solid), which reduced sludge volume after dewatering by 82.5% under low pressure, which in turn minimizes transportation, energy, and handling costs. This study supports SDG 3 and SDG 6 by improving sludge dewatering efficiency and promoting sustainable wastewater management using natural wood chips.