The efficient deliquoring process has been developed for achieving high-rate and high-degree deliquoring of municipal excess activated sludge, which exhibits relatively low dewaterability. In the method developed, low-pressure filtration combined with flocculation led to high-rate deliquoring of sludge due to the formation of large flocs. Subsequently, ultrahigh-pressure expression combined with water permeation through the filter cake which promoted the re-dispersion of flocs in the cake resulted in high-degree deliquoring of the cake. It should be noted that the moisture content in the compressed cake was finally reduced to 31 wt% by expression operation under action of an ultrahigh pressure of 15 MPa. This extremely low value of the cake moisture content implies that the liquid contained within the microorganism cells was partially removed by the mechanical pressure when the ultrahigh pressure is applied to the cake in the course of expression. The relation between the equilibrium porosity in the compressed cake and solid compressive pressure was empirically represented by a power function. The kinetics of ultrahigh-pressure expression such as the time variation of the moisture content in the compressed cake was accurately described by combining the multi-stage creep model with the modified Terzaghi model describing the primary consolidation.
