Location: Kingdom of Bahrain
Client: Ministry of Works
Consultants: Associated Consulting Engineers (ACE)

Project Description

A highly mechanized form of sludge dewatering and drying treatment has been deemed necessary due to the lack of space in the facility to build additional drying beds. The Proposed sludge dewatering and drying plant was designed to produce a product that is dried to 90% solids content and is fully disinfected. The bio-solids produced are of a quality which enable the farmers to apply them on agricultural soils without health hazards.

Sludge drying beds have been used in Tubli Water Pollution Control Centre (TWPCC) to handle the produced sludge, the plant has 72 drying bed with a total capacity of around 15 ton/day. The New Sludge Treatment plant will be able to handle a design capacity (year 2010) of around 38 ton/day. After being thickened, sludge is directed to the sludge drying plant, where firstly is further dewatered.

The principal components of the sludge dewatering system are:
• Thickened sludge storage tanks
• Centrifuge feed pumps
• High solids centrifuges
• Dewatered cake conveyors and dewatered cake pumps

The second stage of sludge treatment is thermal drying where the final product is in the form of granules that can be used as a soil conditioner. Sludge drying is the heart of the sludge handling process and is accomplished by the use of two rotary thermal dryers. The heat source for the dryer is obtained from dual fuel source burner using either natural gas or diesel as a fuel source. The Sludge Treatment Plant produces sludge that is dried to 90% solids content and that is fully disinfected. This sludge can hence be directly applied on agricultural areas.