Development of a computer programme for the design of municipal wastewater treatment facilities Part 6: sludge thickening and blending facility

Abstract

The first sludge processing unit in a municipal wastewater treatment plant is sludge blending tank and sludge thickener before the sludge flow into sludge stabilization unit. A computer programme was developed using FORTRAN to design sludge blending tank and sludge thickening facility. The design include determining the size and hydraulic profile in the sludge thickener and in sludge blending tank. The influent and effluent structure is also designed using the same method in the secondary clarifier. The' input data to this computer programme is mainly the quant ity 'of sludge effluent from the primary sedimentation basins and from the secondary or final clarifiers. These values are computed in a separate subrout ine which analyze the material mass balance in the treatment plant. The thickened sludge withdrawal rate and the effluent quality from the sludge thickener are also computed. The results are easy to interpret and automatically appear on the computer screen or in an output file