Electrically enhanced dewatering (EED) of particulate suspensions

Electrically enhanced dewatering has been characterised from first principles using model kaolinite suspensions in both the coagulated and dispersed state and sludge from a potable water treatment plant. The dewatering properties, namely the compressive yield stress or extent of dewatering (quantified as the applied pressure at an equilibrium solids concentration) and the hindered settling function or the resistance of fluid flow (quantified as the rate of fluid expression at an equilibrium solids concentration), have been measured as a function of electric field strength. For both the dispersed and coagulated kaolinite suspensions, the rate of dewatering was found to improve at all applied pressures and with increasing applied electrical field strength, up to 1250 V m⁻¹. Improvements in the extent of dewatering were also observed but only for the coagulated suspension. The greatest improvements in dewatering were observed at the lowest applied pressures. Improvement in suspension compressibility is only predicted for the specific case where the feed to the process is both coagulated and at a neutral or low pH. For the potable water sludge, improvements in the rate of dewatering were observed at all pressures above 10 kPa. At lower pressures, the low particle surface charge caused a slow onset of electro-osmotic effects. In general, the results indicate that the application of an electric field in situ during dewatering primarily helps to increase the rate of dewatering and the benefit of this methodology is predicted to be for suspensions that exhibit low permeability at low solids concentrations in applications where the pressure is low or the process is gravity driven.