Faculty of Engineering, Design and Technology

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Browsing Faculty of Engineering, Design and Technology by Author "Chelsea Murungi"

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    Investigating the Use of Rice Husk Ash to Improve the Dewatering Performance in the Sludge Drying Beds
    (2024-04-15) Chelsea Murungi
    Lubigi faecal and waste water treatment plant in Namugoona, Uganda adopted the non-conventional technology for treatment which possess a unique characteristic for the treatment system. In spite of the system’s capacity to manage human excreta from both onsite and offsite sanitation systems, there is a high solid loading due to the incoming large volumes of wastes beyond the design capacity and an addition long drying period for the sludge thus limited sludge drying beds thus need for optimum utilization of the drying beds. The research project was investigating the use of rice husk ash to improve the dewatering performance of sludge in the sludge drying beds. Varying proportions of rice husk ash 0%, 4%, 7% and 10% of the sludge weight (30kgs) were mixed with sludge to monitor dewatering effectiveness after every seven days. The key parameters monitored were moisture content, total solids and volatile solids expressed in percentage (%) during both the dry and wet season in order to assess the effect of seasonal variation. During the wet and dry season, sludge with 0% (no Rice husk ash added) had the highest moisture content of 70.9% and 57.2% respectively, 4% dose had the lowest moisture content of 35.4% and 27.3% respectively and 10% dose had the lowest volatile solids of 21.4% and 22.3% respectively after 28days. The moisture content obtained for each season was within the recommended range of (30-40) % for sludge to be removed. Therefore, 4% dose of rice husk ash had the best dewatering performance in comparison to 0%, 7% and 10% and hence was the optimum dosage.