Modelling and design of a drying system by solar greenhouse associated with heat pumps for sewage sludge

Wastewater sludge management raises a serious challenge due to ever increasing environmental pollution and energy consumption. The aim of this work is to study the drying of wastewater sludge using solar energy combined with heat pumps and to investigate possible ways of providing supplemental energy to sludge drying when needed. A laboratory-scale drying test bench was set up to study the conductive drying of sludge and evaluate its drying characteristics. An analytical method was developed to evaluate water vapor diffusivity within urban sludge, modelled as coarse aggregated porous medium where only aggregates external porosity is accounted for. This method, which is based on the analytical solution of a Fick diffusive model, allows the evaluation of the impedance to which vapor diffusion is subjected throughout drying, as a function of the sludge dry solid content. Experiments highlighted the effect of mixing frequency on drying enhancement. Convective heat and mass transfers, occurring between air and sludge, were experimentally characterized. Experiments have shown the effect of increased surface air velocities on the enhancement of the drying mechanism. A correlation giving the deviation from the Lewis' predicted mass transfer coefficients was established as a function of the sludge dry solid content. The concept of blowing air by means of linear slits along the greenhouse width was proposed as a way of improving air distribution inside the greenhouse. A mathematical model has been developed to simulate this new drying system and evaluate its performances and energy consumptions. Weather data were incorporated in order to evaluate system seasonal performances. The system analysis focused on the influence of climatic conditions on heat pumps operating conditions and allowed the definition of an optimal regulation based on the minimisation of the marginal energy consumption. Furthermore, simulations showed improvement on the combined drying system performances with reduced sludge thickness. (author)