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Sewage sludge divers enable digestion tower clearing without interruption of operation

After about ten years of operation, disturbances of the mud, sand and clogging occur in the case of a fault tower. In an extreme case this leads to clogging of the base pipe and thus to a failure of the operation. The environmental diving service C. Ulrich GmbH works with a method whereby the towers can be cleaned without interruption of the operation, resulting in a number of advantages.

A specially developed digital measuring method enables the determination of deposits with a maximum fluctuation width of 10 cm. This also makes it possible to control the complete evacuation after use.

Since the cleaning of divers is carried out, emptying and refilling of the culture mixture is not necessary. The operating temperature of the clarification tank can also remain unchanged. In this way, any stress cracking in the concrete can be avoided by both pressure and temperature changes. The old sludge does not dry out and is therefore much easier to remove. The sludge feed and circulation must not be interrupted during the entire process. Not least, the guide of the suction pump by the diver saves the biologically valuable thin sludge. Thus the monthly reconstruction of the Faulturmbiologie after the evacuation is also omitted.

Since the cleaning of divers is carried out, emptying and refilling of the culture mixture is not necessary. The operating temperature of the clarification tank can also remain unchanged.

The trained professional scavengers can clean the concrete walls of clutches and inspect them for damage, carry out inspection of the pipes, check the gas injection and check all the components for damage and mounting strength. This makes it possible to prevent clogging during operation.

The use of divers for wet dredging lasts only 3 to 30 days depending on the volume and condition of the tower. Only 40 to 60% of the costs of conventional cleaning methods are incurred.

The conventional method of manual emptying without divers is only possible if the water level is lowered below the maintenance opening (manhole). The old sludge then dries up and can only be removed with great effort. Due to the evolved gases evacuation of the Faulturmes is possible only with heavy respiratory protection and explosion protection. As the thin sludge required for faultural biology has to be re-formed after the cleaning process, four to six months may pass before re-commissioning. These disadvantages are circumvented by the newly developed technique.

This video shows the work of a sewage sludge diver

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