Proceedings of PWR2015

ASME Power
June28-July2, 2015, San Diego, California, USA

PowerEnergy2015-49155
ECONOMIC OPTIMIZATION OF INDIRECT SEWAGE SLUDGE HEAT DRYER UNIT FOR
SEWAGE SLUDGE INCINERATION PLANTS
Sinan Demir
West Virginia University
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Morgantown, West Virginia, United States

Orkun Karabasoglu
Electrical and Computer Engineering
SYSU-CMU Joint Institute of Engineering
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
SYSU-CMU Joint Research Institute
Shunde, Guangdong, China

V'Yacheslav Akkerman
West Virginia University
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Morgantown, West Virginia, United States

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the economic optimization of indirect
sewage sludge heat dryer for sewage sludge incineration plants.
The objective function based on two-phase heat transfer, and
economic relations is provided to demonstrate the optimum size
for the minimum investment cost. De-watered sludge is fed into
the dryer with a mass flow rate of 165 tons per day and consists
of 27% dry matter. After the sludge drying process, the dryness
of sludge increases up to 40%. In the indirect sludge dryer unit,
thermal oil is used to heat the dryer wall and to prevent heat
loss. Thermal oil is circulated in a closed cycle and gathered
into an oil tank. Total cost of the sludge dryer unit changes
proportional to the dryer area. The optimum dryer area is found
as 32.54 m2. The corresponding minimum cost is found as
$35,700.
INTRODUCTION
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) produce a large
amount of sewage sludge every year. Sewage sludge contains
pathogenic and toxic substances, which makes its disposal and
processing a complex environmental issue for engineers [1].
Even so, sludge has an important energy recovery potential with
some processes. Some of these processes include; anaerobic
digestion, production of biofuels from sludge, direct electricity
production in microbial fuel cells, co-incineration of sludge in
coal-fired power plants and incineration of digested or

Aysegul Abusoglu
Gaziantep University
Mechanical Engineering
Gaziantep,Turkey

undigested sludge with energy recovery [2]. Sludge incineration

with energy recovery is a promising technology, especially the
aspect of alternative energy production option from an
unrequired by-product. Obtained sludge from WWTP includes
approximately 20-27% dry matter after the dewatering process,
and remaining part consists of water [3]. Before the incineration
process of the sludge, a thermal drying process is applied in
order to decrease water content, thus the heating value of the
sludge is increased before the combustion process [4].
Different types of thermal dryers are used according to the type
of sludge content and operation purpose. These dryers can be
categorized under two titles: direct and indirect type thermal
dryers. As indirect thermal dryers have some important
operation advantages, such as no pollution of the heat carrying
medium, easy and effective odor control, and low fire and
explosion risks, they are commonly used in industrial
applications of sludge drying [5].

This work is a preliminary study of a sludge incineration power

plant design and optimization project. The indirect drying
process of a sludge incineration plant is considered from its
subcomponents for economic optimization procedure.
Considering that the total cost of the sludge dryer unit changes
mainly with dryer area, it can be understood that there is a
requirement for finding minimum total cost by finding optimum

Copyright 2015 by ASME

area for a sludge dryer. Although there have been many studies
of thermal dryers, the optimization of an indirect sludge dryer
has not been studied in open literature. Among the some studies,
Chai [4] proposed a statistical dynamic framework to analyze
the physical mechanisms of sludge drying process based on the
new method. The fractal dimension of a drying structure was
derived analytically and its relationship with some controlling
factors was analyzed. Ferrasse et al. [6] describe an
experimental set up specially designed for the investigation of
drying kinetics, of heat transfer coefficient evolution, and of the
mechanical torque necessary for stirring. Kasakura et al. [7]
provides a brief introduction to the conventionally utilized
drying methods/equipment (i.e, hot gas drying, fluidized bed
drying, pneumatic conveyor drying, and steam drying) for
treating dewatered sludge cakes. Peregrina et al. [8] in their
paper present a fry-drying thermal drying process for sewage
sludge for lifecycle assessment and so on. As seen in the
literature, presented articles related with sludge drying process
consists of overview and a few dynamic studies and not focused
much attention on economic optimization. This paper intend to
present an economic optimization for an indirect sewage sludge
heat dryer to find minimum cost with respect to minimum heat
transfer area. First, system thermal modeling, by considering
two- phase heat transfer, is presented in order to obtain
objective function. After that, improved methodology and
procedure are applied to indirect thermal dryer of an actual
sludge incineration plant.
SYSTEM MODEL AND FORMULATIONS
A sludge incineration power production plant (SIPP)
flow schematic is given in Fig. 1 in appendix section. In this
plant, first de-watered sludge comes to the SIPP with 25-27%
dry matter (DM) from the WWTP. Before the incineration
process of the sludge, its DM ratio should have increased for
efficient combustion. The indirect sewage sludge dryer (ISSD)
unit is used to increase sludge DM up to 40%. In this process,
thermal oil is used to heat the dryer wall, simultaneously
preventing heat loss, and facilitating the heating and
evaporation process. Thermal oil circulates in a closed cycle
and finally gathers in an oil tank. Hot exhaust gas obtained from
the fluidized bed incinerator is used for heating the thermal oil.
Evaporated water (steam) can be used in a steam turbine for
energy production.

process occurs within two steps: First, temperature of the sludge

increases up to boiling temperature. Second, evaporation of the
water starts at constant temperature. This process can be shown
simply in Fig.2.
Thermal oil outlet

Tc,o_2

Tc,i_2

Th,i_1

Temperature

Th,o_2

thermal oil inlet

Tc,o_1=Tc,i_2=Tc,o_2

II
Steam outlet

sludge
Tc,o_1
heated sludge

I
Tc,i_1

Th,i_2

II

Tc,i_1

Th,o_1
Tc,o_1
partial dried sludge

Figure 2. Drying process of the sludge: I-heating of sludge,

II-evaporation of water

The main assumptions for the thermal analysis are listed below:

Steady state conditions.

Heat losses with surroundings are negligible.
Wall thermal resistance is distributed uniformly in the
entire dryer.
There is phase change.
No energy generation inside the dryer.
Specific heat of the thermal oil constant.
Velocity and temperature at the entrance constant.
Fluid flow rate is uniformly distributed through the
dryer.
Curvature effects can be neglected.

Total required annual heat energy rate for the drying process is
calculated by,
Qtotal ((mc p )min Tmax mwater h fg )t

(1)

in which, is the effectiveness which is an important parameter

for performance evaluation of the heat exchangers. m is the
mass flow rate of the fluid in kg/s, mw is the mass flow rate of
the evaporated water and c p is the specific heat in J/kg K. The
term (mc p )min is named as minimum heat capacity rate. Tmax is
the logarithmic mean temperature difference, t is the annual
operation time in seconds, h fg is specific enthalpy of water
vaporization in kJ/kg.

During the analysis, this study considers an indirect type turbo

dryer. These types of dryers are also called conductive dryers,
which operate by heating the surface of the dryer that delivers
the heat to the sludge. The difference between indirect and
direct dryers is sludge is kept from direct contact with the heat
source. Thus, overheating of the sludge above the combustion
point is prevented and also harmful emissions are retained [14].
Heat transfer during the drying process is a complex
phenomenon due to the two- phase fluid flow which means
unstable specific heat and heat transfer coefficient. The drying

Effectiveness can be defined with NTU for the phase change

heat exchangers by,

1 e NTU

(2)

NTU is stated as the number of transfer units and expressed as

[9],

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NTU

UA
UA

Cmin (mc p )min

(3)

during the drying process, the heat transfer coefficient changes

with vapor quality. Thus, it is necessary to calculate htp
according to vapor quality.

where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient in kW/m2K and

A is the heat transfer surface area in m2.

r3
r2

It should be noted that logarithmic mean temperature difference

is based on the assumptions of a constant heat transfer
coefficient, and a constant specific heat of the fluids. However,
for the phase change heat transfer, these assumptions will not be
valid. During the phase change latent heat is not only related
with temperature, but also related with pressure drop. Thus
specific heat of the two phase fluid flow can be defined as [10],

cptwo phase

1 dQ
dQ / dL

m dL m dT dP
dP dL

(4)

(5)

dP
which is total local pressure gradient per unit
dL
length of the dryer (friction, momentum and gravity) for twophase and one dimensional flow based on homogenous model is
calculated by the following equation,
The term

dP dPfr dPmom dPgr

dL
dL
dL
dL
friction

momentum

gravity

1
ln(
r
r 1
1
2 / r1 )
r1
1
htp
kW
r3 h2

ln(r2 / r1)
2k w L

1
h2 2r3L

The Kandlikar correlation can be used for the calculation of the

two-phase heat transfer coefficient for the boiling process [12]

0.6683 0.1 x 0.16 (1 x)0.64 f ( Fr )

f
g
f

1058 q ''s (1 x)0.8 Gs , f

Mh fg
htp

larger of ............................................................
hsp

0.45 0.72
0.08
1.136 f g x (1 x) f ( Frf )

q ''s

0.8
667.2 Mh (1 x) Gs , f
fg

(8)

in which Frf is the Froude number, and can be calculated as

Frf

(6)

To calculate total local pressure gradient, related correlations

are given in Table 1.
For the given thermal dryer model, heat transfer through a
cylindrical wall can be seen in Fig. 3. Sludge passes through the
cylinder with radius r1 and given wall thickness is r2-r1. Thermal
oil passes through other side of the thermal dryer with distance
r3-r2.
For the thermal drying process the overall heat transfer
coefficient is shown below,

1
h12r1L

Figure 3. Heat transfer through thermal dryer wall

length of the dryer (friction, momentum and gravity) for twophase and one dimensional flow based on homogenous model is
calculated by the following equation,

dTsat Tsat (vg v f )

dPsat
h fg

r1

. Gs,f is the fluid- surface combination, and

gD
its value can be taken as 1 for water. F(Frf) is the stratification
parameter, and can be calculated according to given condition:

for vertical and

1
for horizontal tubes with Fr, f 0.04

f ( Frf ) ........................................................
2.63Fr 0.3 for horizontal
f

with Fr, f 0.04

(9)

q ''s denotes heat flux for boiling, and can be calculated by the
equation,

(7)

g f g

q ''s l h fg

0.5

c p , f Te

n
Cs , f h fg Pr f

(10)

where h represents the heat transfer coefficients, and kW is the

thermal conductivity of the wall. Since there is a phase change

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The coefficient Cs,f and the exponent n depend on the solid

fluid combination, which can be taken as 0.0132 and 1
respectively for water and stainless steel that is mechanically
polished. Te represents excess temperature and is calculated as
Te=Ts-Tsat.
Finally, single phase heat transfer coefficient, hsp, can be
calculated below,

hsp
where

f,

1.07 12.7(Pr f 2/3 1)( f / 2)0.5

can be

TC

P2CA PC
t (mC p )min Tmax mw h fg
1 E
A
A

(16)

Thus, the optimum area can be obtained in the given equation:

Re f Pr f ( f / 2)(kl / D)

friction factor,

In this equation, total cost is a function of the area (TC=f(A))

where A is the decision variable. By performing partial
differentiation, it can be obtained separately,

calculated

(11)

Aoptm
from

(mc p )min
U

P2C A (mc p )
ln

1 E ((mc p ) min Tmax mw h fg ) t

UPC

(17)

f 1.58ln(Re f ) 3.28 .
The aim of this study is to decrease the total cost by seeking the
optimum area of a thermal heat dryer. Thus, the total cost of the
dryer consists of initial costs, and operational costs. The
relation can be express as,

TC IC OC

(12)

Eq. (12) can be written in open form depending on the area, as

shown below,

TC P2CA A PC
1 E Qtotal

(13)

where CE is the present price of energy, C A is the area

dependent first cost of the dryer, A is the total heat transfer
area, P1 is the ratio of total life cycle net savings of the heat
recovery system to the first years saving, and P2 is the ratio of
total life cycle cost of the heat recovery system to its initial cost.
P1 - P2 can be calculated simply by [13],
1 1 i
P1

1
d i 1 d

N
if i d
1 i
P2 1 P1 M s RV (1 d ) N

CASE STUDY
Obtained correlations can be applied for the considered an
actual ISSD. Related given data of the thermal dryer can be
summarized by considering Fig.1 and 2:
165 tons of sewage sludge comes to the indirect thermal dryer
daily with 27% DM content and at environmental conditions
(25C, 1 atm). After the drying process, its DM content
increases up to 40%. Thermal oil comes to the dryer at 240 C,
and turns back to the oil tank at 200 C. Mass flow rate of the
thermal oil is 43.65 kg/s. It is assumed that obtained steam from
the dryer process has 0.2 quality.
Dryers size, by considering Fig. 3 can be given as r1=550, r2=
584 and r3= 600 mm. Length of the dryer is 12 meters. Thermal
conductivity of the dryer wall is 17 W/mK. Using internal flow
correlations[12], the heat transfer coefficient of the sewage
sludge and thermal oil are calculated as 685 and 35 W/m2K.
Other properties related with substances can be taken from the
thermodynamic tables.
Economic parameters related with dryer are given as: i and d,
which are 7 and 8%, respectively. Energy present price is
2.03x10-8 US$/J. Area dependent first cost of the dryer is given
as 112 US$/m2. The system technical life time is 7 years, and
operation time is 7200 hours annually.

if i d

P1

(14)

where M s is the ratio of the annual maintenance and

operational cost to the original first cost, RV is the ratio of the
resale value to the first cost, i is the fuel price rate, d is the
interest rate and N is the technical life.
Thus objective function can be obtained in such form:

min TC P2CA Aoptm PC

1 E (mC p ) min Tmax mw h fg (15)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

For the thermal drying process, total pressure drop can be
calculated as 33.2 kPa by using Eq.6. Due to the phase change
during thermal drying process, specific heat of the two phase
fluid flow is not constant, and its value is changed with respect
to vapor quality. When the vapor quality of the steam is taken as
0.2, specific heat of the two phase fluid flow is calculated as 2.3
kJ/kgK by using Eq.4. Variation of the specific heat of the two
phase fluid flow and total pressure drop with respect vapor
quality can be seen in Fig. 4.
It can be seen from Fig.4 that specific heat of the two phase
fluid flow decreases with increasing vapor quality. However,
total pressure drop changes as directly proportional with vapor
quality.

Copyright 2015 by ASME

As valid for the specific heat of the two phase fluid flow, two
phase heat transfer coefficient ( htp ) changes with respect to

Figure 5. The variation of the two phase heat transfer

coefficient and optimum area with respect to vapor quality

vapor quality. This value is calculated as 18735 W/m2K for the

0.2 vapor quality by using Eq. (8). Thus overall heat transfer
coefficient (U) can be calculated as 454.6 W/m2K by using Eq.
(7).

Effectiveness ( ) of the ISSD is calculated as %99.98 by using

Eq.2. It is clear that this value is the tab value. Total cost of the
dryer and annually required heat transfer rate for heating and
evaporation process of the sewage sludge are found as $35,701
and 7.88x1010 W, respectively. In the Fig.6, variation of the
effectiveness and total cost with respect to heat transfer area is
given.

4.5

250
225

Cp two phase
P

200
175
150

2.5
125
2
1.5
1

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

36000

75

0.85

33000
30000

optimum value

0.8

27000
0.75
24000

25
0

39000

0.95
0.9

42000

100

50

0.5

1.05

TC ($)

P (kPa)

Cp two phase (kJ/kgK)

3.5

0.7

21000

0.65

18000

0.6

TC

0.55

Figure 4. The variation of the specific heat and total pressure drop
with respect to vapor quality

15000
12000

0.5
0.45

12

15

18 21
A (m 2 )

24

27

30

33

36

9000
39

Finally, the optimum area ( Aoptm ) of the thermal dryer can be

calculated as 32.54 m2 by using Eq. (17) for the 2% vapor
quality. Variation of the heat transfer coefficient of the two
phase fluid flow and optimum area with respect vapor quality
can be seen in Fig. 5. Two-phase heat transfer coefficient
decreases by increasing of the vapor quality. The reason is the
increasing amount of the vapor quantity which has lower heat
transfer coefficient than water. In same manner, for the higher
vapor quantity, there is less required heat transfer area.

22000

Figure 6. The variation of the effectiveness and total cost with

respect to area

CONCLUSION
The developed formulations and procedures are applied to an
actual ISSD system to find minimum total cost for the optimum
area. The following conclusions can be drawn based on the
analysis and the results obtained:

De-watered sludge is fed into the dryer with a mass

flow rate of 165 tons per day and consists of 27% dry
matter. After the sludge drying process, the dryness of
sludge increases up to 40%. Thermal oil is used to heat
the dryer wall and circulated in a closed cycle and
gathered into an oil tank. Thermal oil is heated in a
fluidized bed incinerator by combustion of the sludge.

Specific heat and heat transfer coefficient of the twophase fluid flow are found as 2.3 kJ/kgK and 18735
W/m2K at 0.2 vapor quality.

Total cost of the sludge dryer unit changes

proportional to the dryer area. Optimum dryer area and
total cost are found as 32.54 m2 and $35,700,
respectively.

60
55

h tp
Aoptm

20000
18000

50
45

16000

12000

30

10000

25

Aoptm (m 2 )

35

h tp (W/m K)

40
14000

20

8000

15

6000

10
4000

2000
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Copyright 2015 by ASME

It is obvious that vapor quality is an important

parameter for the dryer area and total cost. By
increasing of the vapor quality, it is mean that less
dryer area and cost and energy.

APPENDIX

Figure 1. Flow schematic of indirect sludge thermal dryer

TABLE 1: CORRELATIONS FOR TWO-PHASE TOTAL PRESSURE GRADIENT [11]

Frictional pressure drop:

dPfr
dL

fg

g2 E

4 M2 2

g 2r1 2 gc g

Where f is the single phase friction factor, M denotes the total mass flow
rate as gas in kg/m2s. The two-phase frictional pressure drop is calculated
using the equation above. The single flow pressure drop is multiplied by
the two-phase friction multiplier, which is denoted as

g2 .

It can be

calculated by using Friedel friction multiplier correlation for the conditions

of and all values of M as shown to the right.

3.24 F H
Fr 0.045We0.035

E (1 x)2 x 2

f fg
g fl

E (1 x)2 x 2

f fg
g fl

F x0.78 (1 x)0.24

f
H

Fr

hom

0.91

0.19

g
1
f

0.7

M 2 2r1
M2
We
2
hom
gDi hom

1 x

f 1.58ln(Re) 3.28

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Momentum pressure drop:

dPmom d M 2 x 2
(1 x)2

dL
dz g c a g (1 a) f

a represents the void fraction of the vapor phase, which is a ratio of

volumetric flow rate of the vapor phase divided by the total volumetric
flow rate of the two-phase mixture. It can be calculated from an empirical
correlation.

1 x g
a 1 A

x f

Where A, p, q and r are the constants and for the

homogenous model A=p=q=1; r=0.

Gravity pressure drop:

dPgr
dL

g
sin a g (1 a) f
gc

The equation can be negative for downward flow and positive for upward
flow. is the angle with a horizontal axis.

NOMENCLATURE

Qtotal total heat transfer rate (W/y)

overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)
U
x
vapor quality

A
cp

area (m)
specific heat (J/kgK)

CA
CE
Cmin
D
f
g
gc
h
h fg

area dependent first cost ($/m2)

Abbreviations

energy present price ($/J)

DM
dry matter
ISSD
indirect sewage sludge dryer
SIPP
sludge incineration power production plant
WWTP wastewater treatment plant

kw
L
m
M
N
P
r
t
T
q

thermal conductivity of the wall (W/mK)

length of the dryer (m)
mass flow rate (kg/s)
total mass flow rate (kg/m2s)
technical life (y)
pressure (Pa)
radius (mm)
operation time (h)
temperature (K)
heat flux (kJ/kg)

minimum heat capacity rate (W/K)

diameter (m)
friction factor
acceleration of gravity (m/s2)
conversion factor
heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)
specific enthalpy of water vaporization (kJ/kgK)

Greek Letters

density (kg/m3)
dynamic viscosity (Pa.s)
surface tension (N/m)
specific volume (m3/kg)
angle ()

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank to GASKI Wastewater Treatment plant
engineer Eyup Anlatici for supplying data.

Copyright 2015 by ASME

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