Identifying the optimal solids content of wastewater sludge, slurries and cakes can provide significant cost savings on chemical additives, haulage and incineration. It also helps optimize process control and ensure a consistent final product.
There are several methods to test for solids content during the dewatering process. This paper will briefly explain the differences between the various methods and will be followed by an experiment to test the most common form of solids analysis - the oven method - against the advanced technology of the Computrac® MAX® 4000XL Rapid Loss-on-Drying Moisture and Solids Analyzer. The MAX® 4000XL will prove to be just as accurate as the standard reference method while being significantly faster and less dependent on operator technique.