Basic engineering of e-beam sludge processing line

In the era of circular economies, municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are viewed as resource recovery facilities. At the very minimum, the targeted resources are water, biogas, and phosphorus. However, municipal wastewater streams (sludge and effluent) need to be adequately treated to eliminate the potential for the transmission of microbial pathogens including protozoa, bacteria, and viruses. In case of the use of ionizing radiation to hygienize sewage sludge, an electron accelerator seems to be a better solution in comparison to isotope gamma sources, however such a choice requires a low-cost electricity supply, which is very important for the profitability. This can be solved by biogas production and electricity generation on site. The concept of combining electron beam sludge treatment technology with biogas production in an industrial plant that is equipped  to generate electricity to power the accelerator has been elaborated in the frame of the INCT project. Work performed concerned processing line concept, based on laboratory studies, and development of assumptions for industrial electron accelerator based sludge processing unit.