Electroosmotic Flows in Sludge at Dewatering

Electroosmotic dewatering of activated sludge is an important transport process playing a critical role in electroosmotic dewatering of sludge. In the present work, a comprehensive physical model considering both pressure-driven and electroosmosis-driven flows in an activated sludge floc was developed and numerically solved. Meshes were produced via scanning images based on real sludge flocs. The permeabilities of pressure and electroosmotic flows were evaluated, from which the total detwatering flow rate can be estimated.