Effects of electrolyte and curing on freeze/thaw treatment of sludge

This work experimentally examined the role of electrolyte and curing on freeze/thawed sludge dewaterability. We herein, for the first time, demonstrate that the presence of sludge particles have diminished the formation of salt/water eutectic, which is against the results in previous literature. The eutectic temperature of the electrolyte thereby had no effect on the sludge filterability and settleability. Furthermore, curing has profound effects on activated sludge performance, whose effect, however, is negligible for clay slurry. The mass transfer processes interpret the experimental results. Curing time alone is not a fundamental measure for the curing process.