Technical Bulletin No. 0035: Drainability and Dewatering of White Water Sludge

 The enclosed report represents a portion of the studies undertaken at the Council’s Rutgers University project in 1949 under the direction of Dr. Willem Rudolfs. While the clarification of the waste water from news and chip board mills can be accomplished with relative ease, the disposition of the sludge obtained is a more difficult matter. In some mills the bulk of the recovered sludge can be incorporated in the filler stock and thus used to advantage. In others, however, this cannot be accomplished and the residue must be disposed of in some other manner. Land disposal of one type or-another has frequently been resorted to with variable results. In some cases it has worked successfully and in other indifferent results or failure were encountered. Experience in land disposal and draining of similar residues, such as sewage sludge, has been repeatedly accomplished with success. This was due to the fact that considerable knowledge concerning drainabllity and natural drying characteristics was available. In respect to board mill sludge but little data of the type, useful for design and operation of land disposal systems, was available. The report attached represents an effort to determine these facts for news and chip mill sludge. It includes considerable basic information regarding the physical nature of the water associated with the sludge solids as well as data upon which workable land disposal systems can be projected.