Resources from municipal wastewater sludge

The Gea biosolids Decanter pro is a line of decanters designed to achieve high waste­water sludge and bio­gas yields in munic­i­pal waste­water treat­ment sys­tems. The high degree of stan­dard­iza­tion and the com­pact, mod­u­lar design of the biosolids Decanter pro ensure easy “plug & play” inte­gra­tion in estab­lished process­es with min­i­mal adjust­ment require­ments and fast deliv­ery. The line is also opti­mized for high ener­gy effi­cien­cy, requir­ing as lit­tle as 0.7 kW/h per cubic meter of sludge to be dewa­tered. The com­pa­ny pro­vides the biosolids Decanter pro in nine machine sizes with through­put capac­i­ties of 1 m³/h to 120 m³/h – also avail­able as skid, mobile or retro­fit-type solutions.
With this port­fo­lio of machines, the com­pa­ny ensures a high degree of flex­i­bil­i­ty in terms of appli­ca­tions and cov­ers almost all com­mon require­ments involved in the treat­ment of munic­i­pal waste­water sludge. “To achieve this, we first ana­lyzed the require­ments and para­me­ters of numer­ous Chi­nese waste­water treat­ment plants in detail, and opti­mized the Gea biosolids Decanter pro to ful­fil these require­ments”, explained Steve Tzuoo, Coun­try Man­ag­ing Direc­tor for Greater Chi­na. “The devel­op­ment process­es saw the Gea engi­neers in Ger­many col­lab­o­rate close­ly with the Gea sales com­pa­ny in Chi­na.” In doing so, the team drew on Gea’s decades of exper­tise as a sludge spe­cial­ist in the waste­water indus­try – with decanter cen­trifuges as its core tech­nol­o­gy – as well as the company’s 125 years’ expe­ri­ence in the field of cen­trifu­gal sep­a­ra­tion technology.

Turning cost drivers into income sources

With the devel­op­ment of the biosolids Decanter pro line, the com­pa­ny offers a sus­tain­able solu­tion to facil­i­tate eco­nom­i­cal oper­a­tion of munic­i­pal waste­water treat­ment plants. This means that, in future, rather than sim­ply rely­ing on cap­i­tal invest­ments, deci­sive para­me­ters will include the dry­ness lev­el of solids, poly­mer con­sump­tion, bio­gas yield after diges­tion and nutri­ent recov­ery rate. It turns waste­water man­age­ment – until now a cost-inten­sive process with high lev­els of ener­gy con­sump­tion – into a new source of income and mar­ket­ing through the recov­ery of valu­able resources and ener­gy car­ri­ers. Poten­tial yields include phos­pho­rous for the fer­til­iz­er mar­ket and bio­gas for pow­er generation.