Treatment of water abstracted from rivers or aquifers results in the production
of large quantities of mineral precipitates. Owing to their very fine grained
nature, these precipitates are very difficult to filter and separate from
water.
Experimental work has shown that an initial solids content of 4.6 % (liquids
sludge) can be improved to around 14% by a combination of electroosmosis and
electrophoresis and optimised by the addition of a simple ionic electrolyte
and mixing of the sludge.
Dewatering alum sludge using electroosmosis
The above shows the effect of dewatering alum sludge using electroosmosis. Using EKG produced significantly better dewatering than simple hydraulic methods and this was further enhanced using an electrolyte and mechanical mixing.
