Ultrasonic sludge treatment for enhanced anaerobic digestion

2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (9) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Hogan ◽  
S. Mormede ◽  
P. Clark ◽  
M. Crane

Ultrasound is the term used to describe sound energy at frequencies above 20 kHz. Highpowered ultrasound can be applied to a waste stream via purpose-designed tools in order to induce cavitation. This effect results in the rupture of cellular material and reduction of particle size in the waste stream, making the cells more amenable to downstream processing. sonixTM is a new technology utilising high-powered, concentrated ultrasound for conditioning sludges prior to further treatment. This paper presents recent results from a number of demonstration and full-scale plants treating thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) prior to anaerobic digestion, therefore enhancing the process. The present studies have proved that the use of ultrasound to enhance anaerobic digestion can be achieved at full scale and effectively result in the TWAS (typically difficult to digest) behaving, after sonication, as if it were a “primary” sludge. The technology presents benefits in terms of increased biogas production, better solids reduction, improved dewatering characteristics of the digested sludge mixture and relatively short payback periods of two years or less subject to the site conditions and practices applicable at that time.

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 123-126
Author(s):  
Svetlana Ofverstrom ◽  
Regimantas Dauknys ◽  
Ieva Sapkaitė

Iron salts are used at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for several reasons: for removing chemical phosphorus, preventing from struvite formation and reducing the content of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in biogas. Anaerobic digestion is a common scheme for sludge treatment due to producing biogas that could be used as biofuel. Laboratory analysis has been carried out using anaerobic digestion model W8 (Armfield Ltd, UK) to investigate any possible effect of adding FeCl3 on the anaerobic digestion of primary sludge (PS) and waste activated sludge (WAS) mixture as well as on releasing phosphates to digested sludge liquor. The obtained results showed that FeCl3 negatively impacted the anaerobic digestion process by reducing the volume of produced biogas. Fe-dosed sludge (max) produced 30% less biogas. Biogas production from un-dosed and Fe-dosed sludge (min) was similar to the average of 1.20 L/gVSfed. Biogas composition was not measured during the conducted experiments. Phosphorus content in sludge liquor increased at an average of 38% when digesting sludge without ferric chloride dosing. On the contrary, phosphate content in sludge liquor from digested Fe-dosed sludge decreased by approx. 80%. Santrauka Nuotekų valymo įrenginiuose geležies druskos naudojamos cheminiam fosforui šalinti, sieros vandeniliui biodujose mažinti ir struvito nuogulų formavimosi prevencijai. Tyrimai atlikti laboratorinėmis sąlygomis naudojant anaerobinio pūdymo modelį W8 (Armfield Ltd., Didžioji Britanija) ir pūdant pirminio perteklinio dumblo mišinį, į kurį buvo dedama geležies druskos, siekiant nustatyti geležies druskos naudojimo efektą anarobinio pūdymo procesui ir fosfatų išsiskyrimui į dumblo vandenį. Rezultatai parodė, kad pūdant dumblą be geležies druskos ir dedant geležies druskos minimalią dozę, susidarė vidutiniškai vienodi kiekiai biodujų (mL/gBSMtiekiam.), bet į pūdomą dumblą dedant maksimalią geležies dozę, biodujų išeiga vidutiniškai sumažėjo 30 %. Į pūdomą dumblą nededant geležies chlorido, fosfatų koncentracija dumblo vandenyje vidutiniškai padidėjo 38 %. Ir priešingai, geležies chlorido dozės fosfatų koncentraciją pūdyto dumblo vandenyje sumažino 80 %.


2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (12) ◽  
pp. 229-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Zábranská ◽  
M. Dohányos ◽  
P. Jeníček ◽  
J. Kutil

Anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge can be improved by introducing a disintegration of excess activated sludge as a pretreatment process. The disintegration brings a deeper degradation of organic matter and less amount of output sludge for disposal, a higher production of biogas and consequently energy yield, in some cases suppression of digesters foaming and better dewaterability. The full-scale application of disintegration by a lysate-thickening centrifuge was monitored long term in three different WWTPs. The evaluation of contribution of disintegration to biogas production and digested sludge quality was assessed and operational experience is discussed. Increment of specific biogas production was evaluated in the range of 15–26%, organic matter in digested sludge significantly decreased to 48–49%. Results proved that the installation of a disintegrating centrifuge in WWTPs of different sizes and conditions would be useful and beneficial.


2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 487-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Shang ◽  
B.R. Johnson ◽  
R. Sieger

A steady-state implementation of the IWA Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) has been applied to the anaerobic digesters in two wastewater treatment plants. The two plants have a wastewater treatment capacity of 76,000 and 820,000 m3/day, respectively, with approximately 12 and 205 dry metric tons sludge fed to digesters per day. The main purpose of this study is to compare the ADM1 model results with full-scale anaerobic digestion performance. For both plants, the prediction of the steady-state ADM1 implementation using the suggested physico-chemical and biochemical parameter values was able to reflect the results from the actual digester operations to a reasonable degree of accuracy on all parameters. The predicted total solids (TS) and volatile solids (VS) concentration in the digested biosolids, as well as the digester volatile solids destruction (VSD), biogas production and biogas yield are within 10% of the actual digester data. This study demonstrated that the ADM1 is a powerful tool for predicting the steady-state behaviour of anaerobic digesters treating sewage sludges. In addition, it showed that the use of a whole wastewater treatment plant simulator for fractionating the digester influent into the ADM1 input parameters was successful.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haruki Watanabe ◽  
Tomokazu Kitamura ◽  
Shuichi Ochi ◽  
Masaaki Ozaki

This paper concerns field survey and laboratory experiment on the inactivation of pathogenic bacteria during sludge treatment processes with particular emphasis on anaerobic digestion process. We surveyed the inactivation of pathogenic bacteria processes by sampling various types of sludges from 17 wastewater treatment plants located in Japan and counting the number of bacteria in the sampled sludges. The bacteria we counted included fecal coliform groups, enterococcus and salmonella. The median number of fecal coliform groups in primary sludge was found to be 105 MPN/g, while the number of fecal coliform groups in digested sludge decreased to 103 MPN/g. We also confirmed that the treatments of dewatering using inorganic coagulant, drying and composting are also effective in inactivating pathogenic bacteria. In addition, we studied the performance conditions of anaerobic digestion and the degree of inactivation of pathogenic bacteria in the experiment of anaerobic treatment of the primary sludge. This study showed that the number of fecal coliform groups in mesophilic digestion sludge was in the range of 102 to 104 MPN/g regardless of the HRT, whereas the number of bacteria in thermophilic digestion sludge was of the order of 100 MPN/g, clearly indicating that the number of bacteria substantially decreases when the sludge is digested at thermophilic temperature. The number of enterococcus in digested sludge was in the range of 102 to 105 MPN/g after the sludge was subjected to mesophilic digestion while the number decreased to 100 MPN/g after the sludge was digested at thermophilic temperature. The number of salmonella in digested sludge was in the range of 1.8 to 30 MPN/4g after the sludge was digested at mesophilic temperature, but the number decreased to less than 1.8 MPN/4g after the sludge went through thermophilic digestion process. The thermophilic digestion is thus effective in inactivating pathogenic bacteria.


Water SA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (4 October) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilza Da Silva Lopes ◽  
Ysa Helena Diniz Morais de Luna ◽  
Jose Tavares de Sousa ◽  
Wilton Silva Lopes ◽  
Valderi Duarte Leite

ABSTRACT   Sludges generated in the biological processing of sewage are complex mixtures, the constituents of which pose risks to public health and the environment. Anaerobic digestion is considered the most sustainable option for treating sludge because it offers the possibility of generating biogas. The aim of this study was to compare the quantities, properties, biodegradabilities and biochemical methane potentials (BMP) of primary sludge (PS) generated by a primary decanter with acidogenic sludges produced by upflow anaerobic (UA) reactors operating at solids retention times (SRTs) of 2, 4, 6 and 8 days (Samples S2, S4, S6 and S8, respectively). Sludges from both pre-treatments were submitted to alkaline solubilization in order to determine the efficiency of the process in disrupting extracellular complexes. Based on the levels of total solids (TS) present, the primary decanter was found to generate higher quantities of excess sludge (yield of 3.1 gTS∙d-1) than UA reactors operating at low SRTs (yields in the range 1.69 to 0.64 gTS∙d-1). The concentrations of dissolved materials in PS and Samples S2 and S8 were considerably higher after alkaline solubilization, with respective increases of 8, 14 and 28-fold in dissolved organic carbon, 12, 20 and 40-fold in chemical oxygen demand, 25, 31 and 59-fold in proteins, and 17, 21 and 63-fold in carbohydrates. In addition, the BMP value for S8 was some 13% higher than that recorded for PS while the kinetic constant for gas production by S8 was 1.8-fold greater than that of PS. It is concluded that a pre-treatment combining anaerobic digestion at low SRT and alkaline solubilisation would lead to improved performance in subsequent stages of anaerobic digestion and, consequently, increased efficiency in biogas production.


2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 447-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Zábranská ◽  
M. Dohányos ◽  
P. Jeníček ◽  
P. Zaplatílková ◽  
J. Kutil

Thermophilic anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge has been successfully operated in full-scale tanks almost three years. The higher loading capacity and specific biogas production rate in comparison with mesophilic digestion was proved. Thermophilic anaerobic sludge is also more resistant against foaming problems. Biogas from thermophilic tanks contains less hydrogen sulphide and other malodorous substances. Pathogens removal rate is apparently more efficient in the thermophilic process.


Molecules ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 3146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Przemysław Seruga ◽  
Małgorzata Krzywonos ◽  
Marta Wilk

Anaerobic digestion (AD) has been used widely as a form of energy recovery by biogas production from the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (OFMSW). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the introduction of co-substrates (restaurant wastes, corn whole stillage, effluents from the cleaning of chocolate transportation tanks) on the thermophilic anaerobic digestion process of the mechanically separated organic fraction of municipal solid wastes in a full-scale mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plant. Based on the results, it can be seen that co-digestion might bring benefits and process efficiency improvement, compared to mono-substrate digestion. The 15% addition of effluents from the cleaning of chocolate transportation tanks resulted in an increase in biogas yield by 31.6%, followed by a 68.5 kWh electricity production possibility. The introduction of 10% corn stillage as the feedstock resulted in a biogas yield increase by 27.0%. The 5% addition of restaurant wastes contributed to a biogas yield increase by 21.8%. The introduction of additional raw materials, in fixed proportions in relation to the basic substrate, increases biogas yield compared to substrates with a lower content of organic matter. In regard to substrates with high organic loads, such as restaurant waste, it allows them to be digested. Therefore, determining the proportion of different feedstocks to achieve the highest efficiency with stability is necessary.


2020 ◽  
Vol 141 ◽  
pp. 105693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linas Jurgutis ◽  
Alvyra Slepetiene ◽  
Jonas Volungevicius ◽  
Kristina Amaleviciute-Volunge

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 245-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Yasui ◽  
K. Komatsu ◽  
R. Goel ◽  
Y. Y. Li ◽  
T. Noike

For improving sludge digestion and biogas recovery, a new anaerobic digestion process combined with ozonation was tested at a full-scale unit for 2 years and its performance was compared with a simultaneously operated conventional anaerobic digestion process. The new process requires two essential modifications, which includes ozonation for enhancing the biological degradability of sludge organics and concentrating of solids in the digester through a solid/liquid separation for extension of SRT. These modifications resulted in high VSS degradation efficiency of ca. 88%, as much as 1.3 times of methane production and more than 70% reduction in dewatered sludge cake production. Owing to accumulation of inorganic solids in the digested sludge, water content of the dewatered sludge cake also reduced from 80% to 68%. An energy analysis suggested that no supplemental fuel was necessary for the subsequent incineration of the cake from the new process scheme. The process is suitable to apply to a low-loaded anaerobic digestion tank, where power production is used.


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