IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jcltec/v4y2022i2p25-419d814285.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhanced Sewage Sludge Drying with a Modified Solar Greenhouse

Author

Listed:
  • Alice Sorrenti

    (Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Santo Fabio Corsino

    (Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Francesco Traina

    (Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Gaspare Viviani

    (Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Michele Torregrossa

    (Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

Abstract

This work reports the results obtained with an innovative configuration of a closed-static solar greenhouse for sludge drying. The novelty of the solar greenhouse configuration consisted in using a forced ventilation system to provide hot air for sludge drying and the utilization of solar irradiation for energy supply. Wet sewage sludge (97% humidity) was successfully dried up to a residual humidity close to 5% after 25 days during wintertime. The increase of the airflow rate supplied under the sludge bed improved the sludge drying rate. Moreover, the fraction of volatile suspended solids decreased from 70% to 41% after 13 days, indicating that air supply promoted the simultaneous stabilization of the sludge as a side-effect to the drying process. Overall, the specific energy consumption per ton of evaporated water was estimated to approximately 450 kWh/t, resulting in about 55% of energy demand lower than a conventional thermal drying system, while using only free solar energy. The achieved high weight reduction of up to 99% implies a noticeable reduction of the excess sludge handling costs, indicating that solar greenhouse drying is a highly interesting opportunity for sludge drying in medium-small sized WWTPs.

Suggested Citation

  • Alice Sorrenti & Santo Fabio Corsino & Francesco Traina & Gaspare Viviani & Michele Torregrossa, 2022. "Enhanced Sewage Sludge Drying with a Modified Solar Greenhouse," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-13, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jcltec:v:4:y:2022:i:2:p:25-419:d:814285
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/4/2/25/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/4/2/25/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kamil Salihoglu, Nezih & Pinarli, Vedat & Salihoglu, Guray, 2007. "Solar drying in sludge management in Turkey," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1661-1675.
    2. Wang, Panli & Mohammed, Danish & Zhou, Pin & Lou, Ziyang & Qian, Pansheng & Zhou, Quanfa, 2019. "Roof solar drying processes for sewage sludge within sandwich-like chamber bed," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1071-1081.
    3. Tobias Zimmer & Andreas Rudi & Simon Glöser-Chahoud & Frank Schultmann, 2022. "Techno-Economic Analysis of Intermediate Pyrolysis with Solar Drying: A Chilean Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khanlari, Ataollah & Tuncer, Azim Doğuş & Sözen, Adnan & Aytaç, İpek & Çiftçi, Erdem & Variyenli, Halil İbrahim, 2022. "Energy and exergy analysis of a vertical solar air heater with nano-enhanced absorber coating and perforated baffles," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 586-602.
    2. Seckin, Candeniz & Bayulken, Ahmet R., 2013. "Extended Exergy Accounting (EEA) analysis of municipal wastewater treatment – Determination of environmental remediation cost for municipal wastewater," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 55-64.
    3. Thirugnanasambandam, Mirunalini & Iniyan, S. & Goic, Ranko, 2010. "A review of solar thermal technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 312-322, January.
    4. Calise, F. & Di Fraia, S. & Macaluso, A. & Massarotti, N. & Vanoli, L., 2018. "A geothermal energy system for wastewater sludge drying and electricity production in a small island," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 130-143.
    5. Afshari, Faraz & Khanlari, Ataollah & Tuncer, Azim Doğuş & Sözen, Adnan & Şahinkesen, İstemihan & Di Nicola, Giovanni, 2021. "Dehumidification of sewage sludge using quonset solar tunnel dryer: An experimental and numerical approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 784-798.
    6. Bennamoun, Lyes & Arlabosse, Patricia & Léonard, Angélique, 2013. "Review on fundamental aspect of application of drying process to wastewater sludge," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 29-43.
    7. VijayaVenkataRaman, S. & Iniyan, S. & Goic, Ranko, 2012. "A review of solar drying technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 2652-2670.
    8. Pirasteh, G. & Saidur, R. & Rahman, S.M.A. & Rahim, N.A., 2014. "A review on development of solar drying applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 133-148.
    9. Afshari, Faraz & Sözen, Adnan & Khanlari, Ataollah & Tuncer, Azim Doğuş & Şirin, Ceylin, 2020. "Effect of turbulator modifications on the thermal performance of cost-effective alternative solar air heater," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 297-310.
    10. Wang, Panli & Mohammed, Danish & Zhou, Pin & Lou, Ziyang & Qian, Pansheng & Zhou, Quanfa, 2019. "Roof solar drying processes for sewage sludge within sandwich-like chamber bed," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1071-1081.
    11. Rehl, T. & Müller, J., 2011. "Life cycle assessment of biogas digestate processing technologies," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 92-104.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jcltec:v:4:y:2022:i:2:p:25-419:d:814285. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.