Patent ID: 9260322
Filing Date: 2016-02-16
CPC Classification: C02F

Claim Text:
1. Procedure for liquefying dewatered sewage sludge, here termed reactor-sludge, to a target-viscosity, including: providing respective event-records of a number N of separate sludge-liquefaction-events, where N is three or more; the event-records comprise respective aggregations of records of the following event-parameters, namely: (i) the quantity or flowrate of dewatered event-sludge in the sludge-liquefaction event; (ii) the solids percentage of the event-sludge; (iii) the temperature of the event-sludge during liquefaction; (iv) the shearing power or energy applied to the event-sludge to procure liquefaction; (v) the final-viscosity of the liquefied event-sludge, as procured by that shearing power or energy at that temperature; making a compilation of the N event-records; identifying, in the compilation, a target-record, being one of the N event-records in which the final-viscosity matches the target-viscosity; determining the levels of the event-parameters in the target-record, these levels being termed the target-procurement-levels; passing dewatered reactor-sludge through a reactor, for liquefaction to the target-viscosity; the reactor contains a heater and a shearer; liquefying the reactor-sludge to the target viscosity, in the reactor, by: (a) so operating the heater that the temperature of the reactor-sludge in the reactor matches the target-procurement-level of temperature; and (b) so operating the shearer that the power or energy applied to the reactor-sludge in the reactor matches the target-procurement-level of power or energy; and after liquefaction of the dewatered reactor-sludge, discharging the liquid reactor-sludge from the reactor.