High voltage impulse (HVI) has been gained attention as an alternative technique that could control the CaCO3 scale problems encountered in water main, pipe, cooling tower and heat exchanger vessels. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of electric field (E) and contact time (t) of HVI on reduction of Ca2+ concentration at two different temperatures of 25℃ and 60℃. A kinetic model on the effect of E and t was investigated too. As the E and t increased, the Ca2+ concentration decreased more than that of the control (= no HVI). The Ca2+ concentration decreased up to 81% at 15 kV/cm at 60℃, which was nearly 2 times greater than the control. With these experimental data-set of reduction of Ca2+ concentration under different E and t, the kinetic model was developed. The relationship between E and t required to reduce the concentration of Ca2+ by 30% was modeled at each temperature. The empirical model equations were; E0.83· t = 60.3 at 25℃ and E0.08· t = 1.1 at 60℃. These equations state the products of En and t is always constant, which means that the required contact time can be reduced in accordance with the increment of E and vice versa.

Several disposal processes for waste sludge from wastewater treatment plants such as landfill, ocean dump, incineration, reuse as fuels or fertilizers are practiced. However, ocean dumping is prohibited by international treat. New constructions of landfill sites or incineration facilities are limited by NIMBY and reuse processes are still suffering from low energy yield. Therefore, development of alternative processes for sludge disposal are currently needed. In this study, alternative technique for sludge solubilization using HVI (high voltage impulse) was suggested and verified experimentally. Sludge solubilization was carried out for 90 minutes using HVI discharge with peak voltage of 16 kV and pulse duration for 40 microsecond. About 3∼9 % of MLSS and MLVSS concentration were reduced, but the soluble COD, TN, TP of the sludge increased to 372 %, 56 % and 102 % respectively. It indicates that the flocs and/or cells of the sludge were damaged by HVI. These resulted in flocs-disintegration and cells-lysis, which means the internal matters were bursted out of the flocs as well as the cells. Thus, electrical conductivity in bulk solution was increased. All of the results verified that the HVI could be used as an alternative technique for sludge solubilization processes.