How does ELODE work?
The Electro Osmosis Dehydrator (ELODE) is an advanced 2nd stage sludge dryer that further dewaters cake produced by mechanical equipment (eg. belt press, screw press, centrifuge).
Rather than inefficiently using heat to boil water to steam like thermal dryers, ELODE leverages electrical polarity differences between solids and water to pull water out of sludge cake efficiently through electro-osmosis.
What is Electro-osmosis?
Electro-osmosis is a chemical separation technique whereby a positively-charged liquid like water moves through a solid like sludge cake toward a negatively-charged cathode, when an electrical current is applied to create an electrical potential difference.
ELODE uses electro-osmosis to drive water out of sludge on a molecular level rather than heat energy to evaporate water away, consuming 50% less energy to dewater sludge.
Read more about electro-osmosis
How does ELODE work?
ELODE is an electro-osmosis dewatering technology consisting of three main components:
Sludge conveying belt
Anode drum
Cathode caterpillar
The electro-osmosis process within ELODE works in the following steps:
Sludge cake is extruded onto the sludge conveying belt and fed between the anode drum (+) and the cathode caterpillar (-).
A direct current is applied to the anode drum and cathode caterpillar, resulting in the creation of an electrical potential difference.
The electrical potential difference causes the negatively charged sludge particles to migrate to the positively charged anode drum and the positively charged water to migrate to the negatively charged cathode caterpillar.
ELODE dries sludge like so:
The ELODE system is highly effective and efficient, dehydrating sludge with relatively low energy consumption.
As it removes both free and absorbed water, it can discharge sludge cakes with a solids content of 40% or higher, typically reducing sludge weight by 50% or more in just 3 minutes.
This quality makes it ideal for use in secondary processes to attain higher cake solids from sludge dewatered using conventional mechanical dewatering devices.
Read how ELODE compares to Thermal Drying Systems or Contact Us to learn more about ELODE!