Seven Miles of Sludge Pipe

摘要

The Deer Island Treatment Plant in Boston, Massachusetts treats wastewater from 43 metropolitan Boston communities and discharges treated effluent into Massachusetts Bay. Sludge from the treatment processes is digested and then transferred to MWRA's Biosolids Processing Facility ("BPF") in nearby Quincy, MA for conversion to fertilizer pellets. Initially, sludge was delivered via barge, but beginning in 2005 digested sludge was transferred to Quincy via a seven-mile pipeline using positive displacement pumps. Operations staff overcame several obstacles in the first few years of operation, including increased pressure loss that seemed to indicate plugging in the line. Over time, staff optimized the pumping operation considerably, installing centrifugal pumps and reducing the electricity required for operation to nearly half of the original demand. This paper will review the challenges overcome and the optimization of the pumping system.