Combining the Transport of Pendular Water with Wind-Assisted Interfacial Evaporation for Dewatering of Concentrated Slurry Waste

Drying concentrated slurry waste is slow, particularly due to the entrapment and limited accessibility of water entrained between the particles in the slurry. A sailboat evaporator with a root-like structure is a new system that enables wind-assisted interfacial evaporation of concentrated particle slurries. In this work, we create access to the disconnected water pockets in concentrated slurry waste, facilitating faster water conduction and efficient evaporation at an extremely high solid concentration. The evaporator’s long roots effectively extracted water beneath the 150 cm deep supernatant water layer. Through replantation of the evaporator to a separate location, an impressive evaporation rate (ER) of 4 kg/(m2 h) close to 80 wt % solid concentration was achieved, a 25% increase compared to that for a nonreplanted sample. Furthermore, long periods of efficient evaporation was achieved even at high solid concentration through hydrodynamic flushing of roots. Outdoor experiments achieved substantial volumetric reduction, yielding dried residues with over 75 wt % solid concentration. These results underscore the system’s reliable performance against highly concentrated slurries, yet to be achieved by conventional industrial methods, including flocculation and tail-lift drying. The integration of renewable energy coupled with efficient enhancement techniques makes the sailboat evaporator a scalable and sustainable pathway for industrial wastewater dewatering.