Dewatering silt and sludge with MDP
Separating water from dredged silt and sludge, simply and continuously.
Dredging, desilting and sewage treatment all leave the same problem behind: large volumes of wet silt or sludge that are mostly water. Wet material is heavy, messy and costly to move and dispose of.
The dewatering problem
Common methods include settling ponds, geotextile tubes and mechanical presses. Ponds take space and time, fabric tubes can clog as fines build up, and presses need power, chemicals and operators.
What we have done
MDP has been used in silt dewatering and in a sewage works installation. On one engineering job we built an oversized steel MDP inside a large container as a temporary filter: the silt stayed in the container while clean water drained away continuously.
Why it helps
- Keeps draining as the silt settles, instead of clogging as the fines build up
- Simple and passive, with little or no power needed
- Scales from small tanks to large containers
- The drained water is clean enough to reuse on site or discharge more easily
Next steps
We are studying drainage rates for different silt types and container sizes, to turn our site experience into design guidance for desilting and dewatering works.