THE COST OF HAULING WATER

If you haul sludge, liquid or cake, increasing sludge solids before hauling can save you a lot of money.  For example, one ton of sludge at 2% solids is 2000 Lbs of solids and 98,000 Lbs of WATER.  If you thicken it to 4%, now you still have 2,000 Lbs of solids, but only 48,000 pounds of water.  If you are paying by the gallon, you just cut your bill 50%.

I'll show the effect of thickening on your hauling bill here.  Assume that hauling cost $0.03/gallon

COST OF HAULING ONE DRY TON OF SLUDGE VS SLUDGE CONCENTRATION

Total Solids	Pounds Water	Gallons	Cost per Dry Ton
2%	98,000	11,990	$359
4%	48,000	5,995	$180
6%	31,333	3,996	$120
8%	23,000	2,997	$90

Hauling at 2% is pricey, isn't it?  If you land applied 200 dry tons at 6% instead of 2% you would save $48,000 in hauling cost.

How can you improve your solid concentration?  You can supernate caefully, and often to improve solids concentration.  You can have a dedicated storage tank for concentrating solids.  You can buy a thickener, and thicken the solids prior to land application.  I always wondered why consultants never recommeded small dedicated storage tanks and then a gravity belt thickener to jack the solids up to 8% solids just prior to hauling.  It make a lot of sense.