Technical Bulletin No. 0113: Current Developments in the Dewatering of Paper Mill Sludges

Subsequent to laboratory research at Syracuse University on centrifugal sludge thickening and dewatering, the Council has worked closely with a number of mills and equipment manufacturers in testing and developing promising units of this type for application to a number of "White Water" sludges. Results of this program are reported in the attached Technical Bulletin, together with additional information on dewatering developments, as well as a discussion of the basic problem. Considerable progress has been made in evaluating the available equipment and developing it to handle the specific types of sludges produced by "White Water" clarification. Large scale centrifuges are now being installed at several mills so that actual operating data and cost evaluations can be obtained. Progress toward the development of continuous pressure filters is proceeding rapidly in both this country and Europe. When such equipment is available for trial, its applicability to paper mill sludge problems will be explored by Council engineers.