Abstract—The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Microwave (MW) power levels (480 to 1080 W) and sample mass (90 to 150 g) on the drying characteristics of the sewage sludge. The drying tests were carried out using a modified domestic microwave unit with a process control system. The results showed that drying rate was directly proportional to the MW power, but inversely proportional to the sample mass. The desired temperature could be achieved in short period of time at higher power level. MW drying showed a significant increase (from 5.65 MJ/kg to 18.75 MJ/kg) in calorific value of sewage sludge.
Index Terms—Calorific value, kinetics, microwave drying, sewage sludge.
Z. Chen, M. T. Afzal, and A. A. Salema are with the Mechanical Engineering Department, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B5A3 Canada (e-mail: zhenyu.chen@unb.ca, mafzal@unb.ca, arshad.salema@unb.ca).
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Cite:Zhenyu Chen, Muhammad T. Afzal, and Arshad Adam Salema, "Microwave Drying of Wastewater Sewage Sludge," Journal of Clean Energy Technologies vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 282-286, 2014.