Abstract: Briquettes useful as fuel are produced from dehydrated sewage sludge containing 65 weight percent or more sewage sludge solids. The briquettes on a dry basis contain from about 50 to about 95 weight percent sewage sludge solids together with from about 3 to about 12 weight percent lime as binder and fungistat. Organic binders and coking agents may be included in the briquettes to improve resistance to breakage and to impart high crush strength at elevated temperatures encountered in gasifiers.

Abstract: A rail car tippler installation has an open-sided tippler with a rotatable structure (8) comprising a main longitudinal beam (16) mounted on end pivots (10, 18), said beam supporting a rail car platform (2) that substantially spans the distance between the end pivots. The main beam carries the weight of the rail car and platform during tipping and has pivot supports (30) for clamping beams (34) that are displaceably lockable to hold the rail car on the platform. The tipping axis is laterally offset from the platform in a manner that reduces the sweep radius of the tippler and the rise of the rail car during tipping. The installation includes a hopper (14) that is offset laterally oppositely to the tipping axis and has an entry opening that extends longitudinally as far as the end pivots.