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The role of lime in dredged mud dewatered by a plate and frame filter press and potential substitutes

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Abstract

Dredged mud is a kind of construction material that can be reused as waste. It needs to be dehydrated before it is used. At present, plate and frame pressure filtration (hereafter referred to as PFP) using lime for conditioning after flocculation is widely employed. The addition of lime causes the mud cake to exhibit a high pH, and reduces its subsequent use. In response to this problem, this study examines the mechanism of lime in the PFP and identifies neutral alternative materials according to this principle. British kaolin-modified mud and dredged Taihu mud were treated with lime and various conditioners, and the size and specific resistance (hereafter referred to as SRF) of the floc were measured to evaluate the mud’s properties, the compressibility index of the mud layer, the dewatering effect of the PFP, and the properties of the cake. The results showed that lime ensures the filtration speed in the pumping-filtering phase by increasing floc stiffness and reducing the compressibility of the layer, so that continuous drainage can achieve a high-pressure filtration efficiency. SAC can basically achieve the same pressure filtration principle and dewatering effect as lime under conditions in which the pH of the mud cake is close to neutral.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China [grant number 2017ZX07603-003-04].

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China [grant number 2017ZX07603-003-04].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Cui, Wei Zhu & Naixi Lin

  2. College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Zhu, Jiming Liu & Hao Hou

  3. School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212003, China

    Silin Wu

Authors
  1. Yan Cui
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  2. Wei Zhu
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  3. Silin Wu
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  4. Jiming Liu
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  5. Hao Hou
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  6. Naixi Lin
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Contributions

YC discovered a neutral alternative to lime through experiments and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. WZ analyzed and proposed the mechanism of lime promoting mud filtration. SW analyzed and discussed the results of SAC promoting filtration and improving mud cake strength. JL analyzed the SEM data. HH mainly carried out the PFP conditioning test, and analyzed the PFP test data. NL mainly carried out the flocculation and conditioning tests. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Zhu.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Cui, Y., Zhu, W., Wu, S. et al. The role of lime in dredged mud dewatered by a plate and frame filter press and potential substitutes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 17331–17342 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12207-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12207-8

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