Spark-induced consolidation of biological sludge

Subjecting a suspension of biological sludge to underwater sparks (3 kV, 50 kA) leads to its consolidation, decreases the charge density on the solids, and increases its settling rate. The cake solids increase, but by only one percentage point. High-speed video images show that the spark generates a steam bubble. The dynamics of bubble growth could be estimated through the Rayleigh model. The bubble collapses into an acoustic field, which then agglomerates the particles. Sparking does not affect the settling rate of an aqueous slurry of softwood pulp because the fibrous particles are too large to be aggregated by an acoustic pulse.