Comparison of dewaterability and floc structure of synthetic sludge with activated sludge

This work compared the appearance, dewaterability, floc size, fractal dimensions derived from free-settling test and light-scattering test, and detailed structural information of floc interior including porosity, Sierpinski carpet fractal dimension, and the fractal dimension of the pore boundaries of a synthetic sludge and an activated sludge. The present synthetic sludge could probe the change in filterability and in fractal dimensions extracted from small angle light scattering test and from free-settling test after conditioning, however, failed to reproduce the detailed structural information of sludge flocs. The use of specific synthetic sludge depends on the field of interest. For instance, the present synthetic sludge is not appropriate to simulate the intrafloc transport of solute owing to its incapability to reproduce the detailed floc structure or to its change after conditioning.