The disposal of waste muds has traditionally been by tanker to landfill tips but there are now many locations where there is no suitable tip within reasonable travelling distance and the cost of tipping is in any case rising very quickly.  This situation means that it is now often more economical, and nearly always more environmentally acceptable, to treat the waste mud on site so as to reduce the volume of liquid waste being sent off the site by tanker.

Legislation was introduced in 2001 to implement the European Landfill Directive, which bans the disposal of fluids at new landfill sites.

PSD are specialists in the cleaning of waste mud and we are often able to turn waste mud or slurry into a considerably reduced volume of solids that can be disposed of at landfill and practically clear water that is able to be discharged to the sewer system.

Our hire fleet ranges from small, relatively lightweight machines for mounting on top of tanks, through medium capacity 20' container sized stand alone units, to the largest capacity, easily portable rental centrifuges in Europe, which can handle flowrates of up to 60m³/hr.

Further information on our range of centrifuges and other equipment can be found in the Mud Cleaning section of this site.

One method of treatment for waste muds is to flocculate the mud and dewater it so as to produce a semi-solid sludge for off-site disposal by tipper truck and a near clear centrate which can be safely disposed of to the public sewer system or to streams, rivers, canals, lakes or to the sea. Flocculation and centrifuging is most economical when there is a continuing requirement for waste mud disposal during the progress of the job or where there is a large volume of surplus mud, such as at the end of the work. Small or medium sized centrifuges can typically process 8 to 10m³/hr of flocculated waste mud and our very large S4DP centrifuges can handle up to 40m³/hr of these materials.

As well as offering flocculation systems, sedimentation tanks and centrifuges, we have an extensive range of flocculants and associated products including:

We have facilities to test a client's mud or solids to identify the flocculants, coagulants and pH reducers that are required for flocculation.  We can then predict chemical usage and throughput capacity of a flocculation system and centrifuge so that clients can evaluate the savings that such a system would provide for them on a particular project.

Further information on flocculation systems and other separation equipment can be found in the Mud Cleaning section of this site.  The Muds & Polymers pages give details of our range of flocculants and associated products.

Another method of eliminating the requirement for disposal by tanker, particularly where waste mud volumes are not large, is mud solidification.  This process uses a specialist water absorbent polymer, POLYSWELL, which is mixed with the mud.  Some of the water in the mud is chemically bound to the polymer thereby reducing the free water content of the mud and making it ‘thicker’.  The more polymer that is added the more water becomes bound to it and the mud becomes thicker, drier and stiffer.  The final ‘solidified’ mud can be handled as a solid rather than a liquid and can normally be disposed of to a ‘solids’ landfill tip.

POLYSWELL can absorb up to 400 times its own weight of water but addition rates of 2 to 3kg of POLYSWELL per m³ of mud are normally selected to produce a stiff sludge suitable for handling as a solid.