Recently, College of Environmental Science and Engineering achieved breakthroughmade significant progress in the rapid non-thermal drying of municipal sludge, with their findings published in the renowned environmental journal Water Research. The study, titled “Three birds with one stone: sewage sludge deep-drying in 1 hour using secondary aluminum ash to fabricate bricks, 266(2024)122346”, addresses the pressing issues of difficult dewatering and high costs associated with municipal sludge. It introduces the innovative concept of “treating solid wastes using waste”, utilizing metal waste slag to develop a rapid drying agent. This agent enables the deep drying of municipal sludge in one hour without external heating (reducing moisture content from 75% to 35%) through self-heating and pore-forming effects. The dried sludge is then converted into non-fired bricks, achieving resource utilization. Compared to traditional methods, this process offers high efficiency, low cost, and thorough harmlessness, providing a promising solution for rapid sludge drying and metal waste slag resource utilization, with broad application prospects. The technology has successfully undergone pilot testing on municipal, dyeing, and chemical fiber sludge in Zhejiang, Shandong, Jiangsu, and other provinces.
The paper lists Donghua University’s College of Environmental Science and Engineering as the primary affiliation, with Researcher Cai Dongqing and Associate Professor Wang Dongfang as co-corresponding authors, and Dr. Kong Xianghai and Lecturer Zhu Yanping as co-first authors.
