Sustainable Biosolids Management with the Largest Biosolids Dryer in North America

摘要

The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) embraced biosolids thermal drying at the Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) in Detroit as a key component to ensuring long-term compliance with their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit through the implementation of a Long-Term Solids Disposal Plan (LTSDP). Seeking a long-term, regulatory-compliant upgrade for solids processing and disposal at the WRRF, a new Biosolids Dryer Facility (BDF) was integrated into the facility using a unique design-build-operate-maintain (DBOM) project delivery system to fast-track the project. With a peak capacity of 420 dry tons per day (dtpd), the BDF is the largest biosolids drying facility in North America. This manuscript describes the unprecedented scale of the installation at one of the largest municipal wastewater treatment facilities in the country and shows that processing biosolids for beneficial reuse is a viable alternative to landfill disposal and sludge incineration.