Patent Application
20120292241
The invention relates to the sector of plants for the treatment of biological sludges.
In particular, the invention relates to a combined chemical-physical and biological plant for the treatment of sludges deriving from biological purification plants of urban, mixed urban-industrial and industrial waste waters, for example produced by biological purification processes with active sludges, aimed at complete recovery, in the form of Secondary Raw Materials and Energy, of the residual capacities of these sludges.
In more detail, the invention relates to a plant which, in its complete version, constitutes a system architecture that functionally connects single process sections, composed in turn both of conventional and of innovative plants, achieving the aim of producing complete recovery, in the form of secondary raw materials and energy, of the content of biological sludges deriving from aerobic and from anaerobic treatments, but which can also be extended in general to organic liquid wastes and to other types of biomass.
The treatment technique currently most widely used in Italy for the treatment of biological sludges is direct recovery of organic material for agricultural use, for spreading as it is, after separate drying of the sludges, or for composting; instead, other European countries prevalently use energy recovery by combustion in incinerators, i.e. thermal boilers of adequate capacity, after drying of wet sludges produced by purifiers.
These techniques have some limits and disadvantages.
Direct use of biological sludges for agricultural purposes causes problems, as they can only be applied to soils in periods in which no crops are being grown, and it is therefore seasonal, due to the fact that not all soils have suitable agricultural and textural properties, to the problem of protecting the water table and to the possible pollution load still contained in sludges, such as bioaccumulable heavy metals, biopersistent organic molecules, pathogenic agents, etc.
The greatest limits concerning energy recovery from biological sludges are instead related to high moisture content, and consequently low heating capacity—so low as to be unable to support the combustion process alone—to physical condition, which makes management of logistics difficult, as the place of production (community purification plants and the like) does not generally coincide with the place of use (heating plants, incineration plants), and to related environmental problems linked to factors of health and hygiene and secondary pollution from heavy metals in the combustion residues to be disposed of in a suitable and safe manner.
The invention aims to overcome these limits, by producing a plant that can be easily structured with modular sections for partial or complete recovery of the capacities of biological sludges, in terms of substances contained and energy.
The purpose of the plant is firstly to segregate and separate the most dangerous part contained in sludges, constituted by heavy metals, from the more precious protein part, and to destroy pathogenic agents.
The net result, in the complete configuration of the plant, is that of producing a protein lysate susceptible to be used for noble applications; of obtaining Nitrogen fixation in a form that can be reintroduced into the environment, a dispersion of re-usable lime milk, gaseous fuel, electrical and thermal energy, without generating any substances to be disposed of in waste disposal sites or to be sent for incineration.
These aims are achieved with a plant for the treatment of biological sludges with recovery of secondary raw materials and energy comprising:
According to an aspect of the invention, in the reactor that performs the process of alkaline protein lysis at medium-low temperature, lime milk or caustic soda is added to the biological sludges to obtain a suspension with pH higher than 12 and the temperature is then taken advantageously to between 40° C. and 90° C., at atmospheric pressure, and mixed for a maturation time generally between 2 and 10 hours depending on the temperature used and on the degree of solubilization of the organic fraction to be obtained.
Advantageously, said filtration device comprises a centrifuge.
According to a more complex embodiment of the plant, the protein lysate broth is treated in a thermophilic aerobic fluidized bed reactor, for completing the purification cycle of the organic load contained in the aqueous phase.
On the basis of a further embodiment of the plant, said protein lysate broth, optionally together with aerobic sludges, with organic liquid wastes and with biomasses, is fed into an anaerobic digester in which the organic Carbon is transformed into biogas, while the residual organic load of the liquid phase delivered from the anaerobic treatment is received by said thermophilic aerobic reactor, which performs reduction thereof with a high output. The digested sludges of the methanation process return to the dedicated line for the lysis process, while the purged sludges of the thermophilic aerobic reactor pass to the centrifugation section for recovery of the hydroxides.
According to an even more complete embodiment of the plant, the Methane delivered from the anaerobic digester, stored in a gas holder, is used as fuel in a Lime recovery kiln, while the combustion smokes of the kiln are sent to a boiler for the production of steam that feeds a condensing turbine for the production of electrical energy to primarily satisfy the electricity needs inside the plant, while the surplus is transferred for sale on the electricity market as product from renewable sources. The condensates feed the internal heat recovery circuit at medium temperature (90° C.) destined to heat the alkaline lysis reactor. The temperature regulation water of the thermophilic aerobic reactor feed the heat recovery circuit at low temperature (45° C.) destined to heat the anaerobic digester.
Preferably, the organic Nitrogen contained in the sludges is partly converted into Ammonia, contained in the flow of treated waters delivered from the thermophilic reactor, which, through stripping and subsequent
Even more preferably, the slaked Lime used in the form of lime milk in the base process of alkaline lysis is recovered through calcination in the kiln of the cake separated by centrifugation of the protein lysate and slaking with treated recycled water. A part is purged to avoid the accumulation of impurities and destined to be re-used externally.
Finally, the excess process waters, not re-used in the plant, are subjected to a completion purification treatment, which can be performed in a conventional active sludge aerobic plant, before their release into the environment.
The invention has numerous advantages: complete recovery of all the inherent capacities in the biological sludge, through the hot lysis process; separation of the most dangerous part contained in the sludges, constituted by heavy metals, so that they can be sent to an authorized waste disposal site for inorganic sludges; destruction of pathogenic agents; production of a broth containing only the protein lysate susceptible to be used for various noble applications, such as re-use for its content in protein bases both in animal nutrition, as a supplement, and in agriculture; Nitrogen fixation and its transformation into Ammonium Sulphate, a form easily reintroduced into the environment, which can be destined both for agriculture and for industry; production of a dispersion of lime milk contaminated by the heavy metals present and separated from the sludges, re-usable in chemical-physical treatment plants of waste waters in substitution of commercial Lime, as the sludges output from these treatments are destined for disposal in waste disposal sites for inorganic sludges; recovery of electrical and thermal energy and of chemical products, without anything to dispose of in waste disposal sites or send for incineration; possible re-use of the process waters both for the preparing/slaking the Lime and for initial dispersion of the biological sludges received to the plant in solid physical state.
The main advantage with respect to current technologies is therefore that of allowing closure of the cycle of residual sludges in the production plant thereof, freeing it from or, if only the minimum version of the invention is used, greatly reducing dependence on outside plants.
A further great advantage is the capacity to integrate, in its modular configuration, all pre-existing equipments in the purification centre, thus achieving evident savings in terms of size of investments required.
Another advantage is that of using technologies homogeneous with those existing in the purification centre, and consequently of finding a suitable management structure and qualified personnel already present.
Finally, a particularly important advantage is that of being able to structure basin plants to achieve the evident economies of scale, choosing within this basin the site that is most structured and requires the fewest investments for the construction and management of the plant, also in its complete configuration, also without requiring other centres in the basin to dry the sludges in order to transfer them, saving on new investments and additional energy management costs and relative environmental impacts.
The advantages of the invention will be more evident hereunder, in the description of a preferred embodiment, provided by way of non-limiting example and with the aid of the figures, wherein:
With reference to
With reference to
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Said forced filtration device 304 comprises a centrifuge, although it could comprise a belt press or filter press or any other machinery useful for the purpose.
The liquid basic protein lysate can be destined for section 7 for recovery of secondary raw materials, or for section 4 for conventional anaerobic treatment, or for section 5 for non-conventional thermophilic aerobic treatment.
The cake of suspended particulate is sent to the section 8, which performs recovery of lime inside the plant.
With reference to
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Also the residual organic load contained in the aqueous phase delivered from the anaerobic digester 404 is received by the reactor 501, which performs reduction thereof with a high output.
which performs reduction thereof with a high output.
The sections 4 and 5 are therefore mutually connected in series, and in parallel with respect to the section 3.
The purged sludges of the reactor 501 pass to the centrifugation device 304 of the section 3, for recovery of sludge containing lime.
The section 5 also comprises a device 502, which performs stripping and subsequent acid absorption of the Ammonia contained in the treated waters delivered from the reactor 501, produced starting from the organic Nitrogen contained in the sludges, transforming it into Ammonium Sulphate.
With reference to
The gas holder 602 is connected to a calcination kiln 801 present in the section 8 for recovery of lime.
The boiler 603 is fed by the smokes produced in said calcination kiln 801, before these are treated in the plant 604.
The condensing turbine 605 is arranged to produce electrical energy from renewable sources, which primarily supplies the network 608 of utilities inside the whole plant and, optionally and subordinately, the external electricity network and hot water at around 90° C. through the condensate recovery circuit 606. The high temperature hot water is used for the process of alkaline protein lysis.
The low temperature hot water circuit 607 is connected bi-directionally to the thermophilic reactor 501 for heat regulation thereof and is in turn connected to heat the anaerobic digester 404.
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Again with reference to
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The architecture of the plant is arranged for being simplified and adapted to the concrete situations of community purification plants for the existing conventional plant equipments, integrating and expanding them.
The minimum plant for an existing civil community plant is that provided with the sections 1, 2, 3 and 5, substantially obtaining its integration with the low temperature lysis reactor 303 and the thermophilic aerobic reactor 501, making use of the particular characteristics of the thermophilic reactor, if appropriately configured, to achieve a very low production of surplus sludge.
Instead of being sent to the separation line existing in the purification plant (centrifugation, filtration), the thickened liquid sludges are subjected to basic lysis and then to thermophilic aerobic digestion, which greatly reduces their quantity, achieving a corresponding saving in the reduction of disposal costs.
In this case, using only the heat recovered by the thermophile, lysis will be conducted at low temperature and, as there is no recovery of lime, it will be less costly and more effective to use Soda in place of Lime.
Other intermediate configurations between the minimum configuration set forth above and the complete configuration illustrated in
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| CR2010A000004 | Feb 2010 | IT | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2011/000156 | 1/31/2011 | WO | 00 | 8/1/2012 |
