Auger
Horizontal thickeners have been used in industrial applications for many years.
- Instead of using a vertical design, we opted to use a horizontal thickener design. The Horizontal thickeners present a much more “convenient” path for the escaping water than conventional vertical sludge rakes and generate a more consistent product for further thickening and dewatering.
- Additionally, while HydroFloTech horizontal thickeners have more sludge contact area than an equivalent sludge rake, these thickeners require less horsepower because of the smaller overall diameter. The standard horizontal thickener is 4 feet in diameter with 12 “wipers” giving around 30 linear feet of sludge contact. So, even though there is greater contact area with the horizontal thickener, the torque and HP requirements are reduced due to its smaller effective diameter.
The sludge thickening auger design has been iterated numerous times over the years. The action of turning/folding the material over (at a relatively slow rate) and conveying the material to a central discharge point (as opposed to stirring/turning the material in a single direction) results in a more consistent, less stratified sludge blanket.
As the sludge compresses/thickens toward the center of the thickener and along the thickeners compressing edge, water passes up into the clarifier / DAF at the thickeners ends and at its rising edge.
