Evaluation of energy consumption during aerobic sewage sludge treatment in dairy wastewater treatment plant.

The subject of the research conducted in an operating dairy wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was to examine electric energy consumption during sewage sludge treatment. The excess sewage sludge was aerobically stabilized and dewatered with a screw press. Organic matter varied from 48% to 56% in sludge after stabilization and dewatering. It proves that sludge was properly stabilized and it was possible to apply it as a fertilizer. Measurement factors for electric energy consumption for mechanically dewatered sewage sludge were determined, which ranged between 0.94 and 1.5 kWhm-3 with the average value at 1.17 kWhm-3. The shares of devices used for sludge dewatering and aerobic stabilization in the total energy consumption of the plant were also established, which were 3% and 25% respectively. A model of energy consumption during sewage sludge treatment was estimated according to experimental data. Two models were applied: linear regression for dewatering process and segmented linear regression for aerobic stabilization. The segmented linear regression model was also applied to total energy consumption during sewage sludge treatment in the examined dairy WWTP. The research constitutes an introduction for further studies on defining a mathematical model used to optimize electric energy consumption by dairy WWTPs.