Browsing by Author "Mann, Alex"

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    Dewatering of aquaculture sludge by centrifugation
    (University of New Brunswick, 2023-06) Mann, Alex; Couturier, Michel
    Currently, aquaculture sludge is shipped offsite for disposal. The disposal cost is directly proportional to the weight of the sludge, which typically has a solids content between 3 to 10 wt.% solids. This has created a strong incentive to remove water from aquaculture sludge in order to reduce its weight and one method to achieve this is centrifugation. When using a centrifuge, it was determined that aquaculture sludge can be dewatered to 19.3 ± 0.7 wt.% solids. The addition of dewatering aids such as coagulants, flocculants, and sawdust proved to be ineffective at further decreasing the water content in the sludge. Incineration was also investigated as an alternative disposal method for dewatered sludge. The higher heating value of aquaculture sludge was determined the be 16.3 ± 0.2 kJ/g of dry solids and thermodynamic calculations show that sludge must be at least 31 wt.% solids for self-sustained combustion at 800°C.