Sludge to solid: Double the green
 NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) — The City of Natchez may soon be able to bag and
tag a recycled product that was once flushed down residents’ toilets.
The
Natchez Wastewater Treatment Plant’s new solar-powered greenhouse
recently produced its first batch of biosolids made from decontaminated
and dried out sewage sludge.
The batch was completed last month
and the greenhouse’s computer system is currently manipulating weather
conditions to speed up the evaporation process for the second batch.
The
result is a dirt-like biosolid that, when confirmed grade-A by the
Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, can be used and even
sold as organic fertilizer.
One of the new additions to the plant is the mole, a computerized tilling robot that prepares the sludge.
"Farmers can apply it to pastures as fertilizer; it’s like a compost," City Engineer David Gardner said.
Gardner said the system takes household sewage from sinks and toilets and treats it through a natural process.
The
water is separated from the sludge and made clean enough to pump into
the Mississippi River through a gravity flow piping system.
Reducing
the sludge to a solid and treating it to be usable does three things:
it eliminates the liability of storing the toxic sludge in a
MDEQ-approved dump site, saves the city an average expense of $200,000 a
year to transport a sludge product to a dump site near the airport and
creates a marketable compost when dried.
The waste water
treatment plant produces 576 dry tons of the sludge every year. Gardner
said it would take 25 years to empty the two lagoons, converting the
yearly waste along with gradually emptying the 17,000 dry tons already
in the lagoon.
MDEQ classifies the sludge as a toxic hazard and only permits the sludge to remain in the lagoons for 10 years.
Rather
than continue to collect the sludge in lagoons or pile up the toxic
waste near the airport, incurring the cost of transporting a 90 percent
water product, the new system can begin the process of recycling the
waste.
Gardner said the new system will save the city an average
of $200,000 each year. The city recently spent $300,000 hauling away a
few years’ worth of sludge, he said.
"We were hauling 90 percent water," Gardner said.
At this stage, Gardner said the main financial benefit of creating grade-A biosolids is the savings.
"The main thing is savings, not income," Gardner said.
With
gasoline prices rising, Gardner said the average annual savings of
$200,000 would probably increase since the savings were calculated using
the price of gasoline per gallon at $2.50.
Gardner said once the
product is tested and confirmed as grade-A by MDEQ, the city can market
the dry product to farmers, give it away or bag it for sale at retail
stores.
Tests on the final product will be sent to the MDEQ after
a minimum of three batches is produced in order to give composite
results, Gardner said.
"(The dry product) is very rich and organic," Gardner said.
Ernie
Jacobs with Parkson, the green house manufacturing company, said the
same product made in Carmel, Ind., is selling at Home Depot.
"They’re calling it Carmel Green," Parkson said.
"(The finished product) is the same stuff you see in those little tubes for $7 or $8 at Home Depot," he said.
Jacobs said the dried biosolids can also be used as a fuel source, having the same efficiency as brown coal.
Gardner said coal-to-liquid fuel producer Rentech Industries has expressed interest in using the product.
When
the process began, the sludge collected from the city’s sewage system
was 20 percent solid and dispersed on the floor in a 6-inch layer.
The
Natchez Wastewater Treatment Plant produces 576 dry tons of the sludge
every year. Gardner said it would take 25 years to empty the two
lagoons, converting the yearly waste along with gradually emptying the
17,000 dry tons already in the lagoon.
The process to create the
class-A biosolid starts with a newly installed fine mechanical screen
filter system. The filter system is used to sort rags, jugs and other
large debris that will be automatically pumped into a Dumpster.
From
there, the sludge goes into a contaminating chamber where the waste is
introduced to naturally occurring bacteria that feed on the waste.
Gardner said it becomes a feeding frenzy once oxygen is introduced to
the mix from air raiders.
Stalked ciliates, nematodes and
rotifers are among the microorganism that help clean the water and
waste, plant Manager Michael Stewart said.
Once the bacteria are full, they go into clarifier that separates the sludge from the liquids.
The
water is then chlorinated to kill the bacteria and de-chlorinated with
sulfur dioxide, before it is sent to the Mississippi River using a
gravity piping system.
The sludge is approximately 20 percent solid at that point when it pumps into a 64-gallon tank.
Polymer
is then added to the sludge for thickness pumped onto a belt filter
press, giving it a brownie consistence that is easy to transport.
Trucks then load the brownie product in the greenhouses six inches deep.
The
greenhouse, a solar drying unit, harnesses the energy of the sun to
reduce the brownies volume until it is at least 75 percent solid.
"We’re using the cheapest source of energy which is free to us — the sun," Jacobs said.
"It
came out very well. We put (the sludge) in as 20 percent dry sludge,
and in four weeks now its 90 percent dry solids, which is excellent,"
Stewart said.
Sludge must be 75 percent solid and meet other specifications to be considered grade-A.
"You
look at it in magazines and see pictures, and you’re always
anticipating your sludge will look like (the sludge) in the pictures;
and it does," Stewart said.
Jacobs said the greenhouse computer system monitors sunlight, temperature, humidity and wind.
When
the beds are loaded with six inches of sludge, a technician pushes a
button that reads, "Start new batch," the process is completely
automatic until it is complete.
"(The system) keeps human interfaces to a minimum," Jacobs said.
Jacobs the solar drying system was originally invented to dry fruit and wood.
The
computer will monitor and adjust settings every two seconds to optimize
the environment. It even controls a plow called a mole, which resembled
a new-age go-cart and tills the product in a random motion.
Other
than till randomly, the mole has only two settings, one to wiggle
itself out of a corner and another to till near the walls where moisture
is more prone to collect.
Jacobs said Natchez’s climate has
favorable drying conditions and a batch could take as little as 10 days
to dry out during hot months.
The plant employs six people,
including Stewart. Stewart said technicians are constantly testing the
waste water products the plant produces at every step of the process to
ensure its quality.
(« Go Back) |
|
|
