Sludge Pump Design

[Lonelywish]

Hi I am planning to design a sludge pump.
Would just like to know that is there any limitation in the sludge operational hours?
Tried to look for more information on it but din't really came up with anything...
Should I use the operational hours as a basis of my calculation for my pump capacity?
Or am I heading in the wrong direction?
Any comment will help. Thank you.

 

[kchayfie]

Sludge doesn't have operational hours. The process producing the sludge upstream of your pump may have operational hours and the process handling your sludge downstream of the pump may have operational hours. These may not be the same. You will need a pump that can deliver the volume of sludge needed in the time it is needed and some form of buffering capacity to make up the difference.

An example from my current clean water plant: backwash water settles to form sludge - needs pumping for x minutes every X hours as part of "fill-settle-decant-desluge" cycle of settlement tank. This is pumped to sludge thickener which run 24/7 so buffer tank needed and thickener feed pumps run 24/7 at lower flow rate to provide continuous feed. Thickened sludge gets pumped to a filter press that operates 8 hours per day 5 days per week. Again, thickened sludge pumps run 24/7 to supply a buffer tank and press feed pumps sized to deliver flow in the time required by the press operating regime.

Hope this helps