Dewatering

Removing water from slurries and sludges is a requirement of a large number of processes and
activities. The science and engineering of this activity recognises four broad stages:
1. Sedimentation or settling usually achieved by some manner of active or passive settling of
solids through a liquid column.
2. Thickening taking a liquid mixture such as a sludge and removing water to produce a higher
density liquid or paste.
3. Dewatering - taking a sludge or paste and removing water to effectively create a phase
transition wherein the behaviour of the material which has been dewatered resembles that of a
solid more than it does of a liquid. This material is often described as a cake. The transition
between the phases is often indistinct.
4. Drying cake (dewatered sludge) is dried to produce a friable granular or free flowing
material.
With each stage there are a large variety of methods and approaches that can be adopted.
Removal of water is most challenging from fine grained materials because the solid particles
either settle very slowly through water (sedimentation and thickening), or water flows very
slowly through a matrix of particles (dewatering). Electrokinetic has developed a wide range of
EKG materials that combine electroosmosis and filtration in such a way as to yield an enhanced
dewatering performance. This in turn offers improvements in performance (increase in solids
content of dewatered material) or an increase in the speed of dewatering to the extent that
filtration dewatering of some especially difficult materials becomes viable.
Understanding that electrokinetic dewatering is aimed at mixtures of water and fine grained
solids, we have recognised several distinct applications for EKG dewatering methods.
These include:
Supply
Treatment

Constant

Materials
Method

Large
volume

Homogenous Existing
Belt press
Plate press

Small volume
Small belt
press
Pump and
tanker

Intermittent
Large
volume
Temporary
lagoon

Small
volume
Pump and
tanker

Centrifuge
Small EKG
EKG belt press belt press

EKG wick
drains in
temporary
lagoon

EKG
dewatering
bag

Existing

Screen then
Screen and
thicken and
thicken then
centrifuge /
tanker
belt or stabilise

Temporary
lagoon then
screen and
tanker

Screen and
thicken and
tanker

EK

EKG
Screen then
dewatering
EKG belt press
bag

EKG
dewatering
tube

EKG
dewatering
bag

EK

Mixed

EKG plate
filter press

Small EKG
plate filter
press

EK methods actually applied by Electrokinetic

EKG belt filter press

Standard belt filter press technology with existing belt presses retro-fitted with EKG filter belts
and electrical collection and distribution systems. Applications include:
(i) Mine tailings - dewatering of mine tailings in cases where dewatering was previously
considered impractical or uneconomic. Dewatering of tailings to form cake permits the
transportation by conveyor and the avoidance of disposal in tailings dams (tailings storage
facilities).
(ii) Sewage sludge dewatering of municipal sewage sludge to produce cake which is of a
higher solids content than that achieved by pressure-driven filtration alone. This produces a
reduction in the volume of waste and an improvement in its mechanical handling characteristics,
both of which are economically beneficial.
EKG dewatering bags

Filtration bags which act to combine electroosmosis and hydraulic filtration to permit dewatering
of materials in hanging bags an approach which was previously impractical and in some
instances effectively impossible. Applications include:
(i) dewatering of small volumes of industrial waste such as may be associated with food
production.
(ii) dewatering the arisings of drilling boreholes e.g. for ground source heat boreholes.
(iii) dewatering arisings from roadside gully operations.
There are numerous other potential applications and Electrokinetic have recently invented and
patented a new bag design which increases the speed, effectiveness and efficiency of the process.
In situ dewatering
Some materials are placed in open voids in the ground (partly due to availability of the space and
partly owing to the difficulty in dewatering the slurry). Where the materials are very soft and fine
grained, dewatering is challenging because the materials are often in a condition, which may be
described as too thin to shovel but too thick to pump. Alternatives to EKG treatment are to mix
in dry solid material and stiffen the material in situ or to mix in water and pump to a subsequent
dewatering plant (e.g. centrifuge or belt press).
Electrokinetic has devised a method to combine electroosmosis with conventional well-point
technology to permit an effective in situ dewatering method.