Characterization and Performance of Sludge Derived Biochar as Conditioner in Textile Wastewater Sludge Dewatering

Dewatering is a crucial stage in the treatment of sludge since it directly increases capacity and lowers the cost of subsequent handling. Enhanced dewatering of printing and dyeing sludge was experimentally investigated with combined conditioners of sludge -derived biochar and ferric chloride (FeCl3) in this study. Results showed that the optimal conditioner dosages were: FeCl3 of 3% dry sludge (DS) and biochar of 60% DS. Compared with raw sludge, the sludge specific resistance to filtration (SRF) decreased by 77.14%, and the moisture content of sludge decreased from 85.38% to 67.08%. In addition, the chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity and chromaticity of supernatant decreased by 32.50%, 89.20% and 77.50%, respectively. It was found that the synergistic effect existed between the two conditioners. The possible mechanism was that FeCl3 aggregated small sludge particles to form large flocs and improved the dewatering performance of sludge, while biochar helped to build an incompressible and permeable sludge cake to further improve the sludge dewaterability due to its relatively hydrophobicity and large specific surface area. Therefore, combined addition of FeCl3 and biochar might be a promising conditioning method to enhance textile sludge dewaterability.