Sludge electrooxidation as pre-treatment for anaerobic digestion

2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 775-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Barrios ◽  
U. Duran ◽  
A. Cano ◽  
M. Cisneros-Ortiz ◽  
S. Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Volatile Fatty Acids ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Wastewater Sludge ◽  
Boron Doped Diamond ◽  
Boron Doped ◽  
Treatment Conditions ◽  
Volatile Solids ◽  
Pre Treatment

Anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludge is the preferred method for sludge treatment as it produces energy in the form of biogas as well as a stabilised product that may be land applied. Different pre-treatments have been proposed to solubilise organic matter and increase biogas production. Sludge electrooxidation with boron-doped diamond electrodes was used as pre-treatment for waste activated sludge (WAS) and its effect on physicochemical properties and biomethane potential (BMP) was evaluated. WAS with 2 and 3% total solids (TS) achieved 2.1 and 2.8% solubilisation, respectively, with higher solids requiring more energy. After pre-treatment, biodegradable chemical oxygen demand values were close to the maximum theoretical BMP, which makes sludge suitable for energy production. Anaerobic digestion reduced volatile solids (VS) by more than 30% in pre-treated sludge with a food to microorganism ratio of 0.15 g VSfed g−1 VSbiomass. Volatile fatty acids were lower than those for sludge without pre-treatment. Best pre-treatment conditions were 3% TS and 28.6 mA cm−2.

Alkali pre-treatment of Sorghum Moench for biogas production

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Michalska ◽  
Stanisław Ledakowicz
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Chemical Oxygen Demand ◽  
Volatile Fatty Acids ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Total Phenolic ◽  
Methane Generation ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
Alkali Hydrolysis ◽  
Almost All

AbstractThis work studies the influence of the alkali pre-treatment of Sorghum Moench — a representative of energy crops used in biogas production. Solutions containing various concentrations of sodium hydroxide were used to achieve the highest degradation of lignocellulosic structures. The results obtained after chemical pre-treatment indicate that the use of NaOH leads to the removal of almost all lignin (over 99 % in the case of 5 mass % NaOH) from the biomass, which is a prerequisite for efficient anaerobic digestion. Several parameters, such as chemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon, total phenolic content, volatile fatty acids, and general nitrogen were determined in the hydrolysates thus obtained in order to define the most favourable conditions. The best results were obtained for the Sorghum treated with 5 mass % NaOH at 121°C for 30 min The hydrolysate thus achieved consisted of high total phenolic compounds concentration (ca. 4.7 g L−1) and chemical oxygen demand value (ca. 45 g L−1). Although single alkali hydrolysis causes total degradation of glucose, a combined chemical and enzymatic pre-treatment of Sorghum leads to the release of large amounts of this monosaccharide into the supernatant. This indicates that alkali pre-treatment does not lead to complete cellulose destruction. The high degradation of lignin structure in the first step of the pre-treatment rendered the remainder of the biomass available for enzymatic action. A comparison of the efficiency of biogas production from untreated Sorghum and Sorghum treated with the use of NaOH and enzymes shows that chemical hydrolysis improves the anaerobic digestion effectiveness and the combined pre-treatment could have great potential for methane generation.

Effect of Ultrasonic Pretreatment for the Anaerobic Digestion of Sewage Sludge

2012 ◽  
Vol 531 ◽  
pp. 528-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Wei
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Sewage Sludge ◽  
Volatile Fatty Acids ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Ultrasonic Pretreatment ◽  
Soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
Settling Characteristics

Anaerobic digestion is an economic and environmentally friendly technology for treating the biomass material-sewage sludge, but has some limitations, such as the low efficient biogass production. In this paper ultrasound was proposed as pre-treatment for effective sludge anaerobic digestion. Sludge anaerobic digestion experiments with ultrasonic pretreatment was investigated. It can be seen that this treatment effectively leaded to the increase of soluble chemical oxygen demand(SCOD) and volatile fatty acids(VFA)concentration. High concentration of VFA leaded to a increase in biogas production. Besides, the SV of sludge was reduced and the settling characteristics of sludge was improved after ultrasonic pretreatment. It can be concluded that sludge anaerobic digestion with ultrasonic pretreatment is an effective method for biomass material transformation.

scholarly journals Inter-stage thermophilic aerobic digestion may increase organic matter removal from wastewater sludge without decreasing biogas production

2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 721-726
Author(s):  
Sasha D. Hafner ◽  
Johan T. Madsen ◽  
Johanna M. Pedersen ◽  
Charlotte Rennuit
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Methane Production ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Wastewater Sludge ◽  
Aerobic Digestion ◽  
Anaerobic Digesters ◽  
Stage System ◽  
Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion ◽  
Pre Treatment

Abstract Combining aerobic and anaerobic digestion in a two-stage system can improve the degradation of wastewater sludge over the use of either technology alone. But use of aerobic digestion as a pre-treatment before anaerobic digestion generally reduces methane production due to loss of substrate through oxidation. An inter-stage configuration may avoid this reduction in methane production. Here, we evaluated the use of thermophilic aerobic digestion (TAD) as an inter-stage treatment for wastewater sludge using laboratory-scale semi-continuous reactors. A single anaerobic digester was compared to an inter-stage system, where a thermophilic aerobic digester (55 °C) was used between two mesophilic anaerobic digesters (37 °C). Both systems had retention times of approximately 30 days, and the comparison was based on measurements made over 97 days. Results showed that the inter-stage system provided better sludge destruction (52% volatile solids (VS) removal vs. 40% for the single-stage system, 44% chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal vs. 34%) without a decrease in total biogas production (methane yield per g VS added was 0.22–0.24 L g−1 for both systems).

A modified anaerobic digestion process with chemical sludge pre-treatment and its modelling

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (11) ◽  
pp. 2350-2356 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. M. Hai ◽  
S. Sakamoto ◽  
V. C. Le ◽  
H. S. Kim ◽  
R. Goel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Activated Sludge ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Municipal Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Simulation Accuracy ◽  
Volatile Solids ◽  
Pre Treatment

Activated Sludge Models (ASMs) assume an unbiodegradable organic particulate fraction in the activated sludge, which is derived from the decay of active microorganisms in the sludge and/or introduced from wastewater. In this study, a seasonal change of such activated sludge constituents in a municipal wastewater treatment plant was monitored for 1.5 years. The chemical oxygen demand ratio of the unbiodegradable particulates to the sludge showed a sinusoidal pattern ranging from 40 to 65% along with the change of water temperature in the plant that affected the decay rate. The biogas production in a laboratory-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) process was also affected by the unbiodegradable fraction in the activated sludge fed. Based on the results a chemical pre-treatment using H2O2 was conducted on the digestate to convert the unbiodegradable fraction to a biodegradable one. Once the pre-treated digestate was returned to the digester, the methane conversion increased up to 80% which was about 2.4 times as much as that of the conventional AD process, whilst 96% of volatile solids in the activated sludge was digested. From the experiment, the additional route of the organic conversion processes for the inert fraction at the pre-treatment stage was modelled on the ASM platform with reasonable simulation accuracy.

scholarly journals Evaluation of acidogenic sludge from anaerobic reactors running at low solids retention times to reduce sludge generation and enhance biogas production

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
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Kinetic Constant ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Primary Sludge ◽  
Anaerobic Reactors ◽  
Solids Retention ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Pre Treatment

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.

scholarly journals Temperature-Phased Biological Hydrolysis and Thermal Hydrolysis Pretreatment for Anaerobic Digestion Performance Enhancement

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beraki Bahre Mehari ◽  
Sheng Chang ◽  
Youngseck Hong ◽  
Han Chen
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Volatile Fatty Acids ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Performance Enhancement ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Wastewater Sludge ◽  
Thermal Hydrolysis ◽  
Soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand ◽  
Effects Of Temperature

Thermal hydrolysis (TH) and biological hydrolysis (BH) are two main and growing anaerobic digestion pretreatment technologies. In this study, municipal wastewater sludge samples were collected from the Guelph Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Ontario, Canada. The effects of temperature on BH treatment, including BH at 42 °C (BH42), 42 °C followed by 55 °C (BH42+55), 55 °C followed by 42 °C (BH55+42), and 55 °C (BH55) were evaluated for anaerobic digestion performance enhancement and compared with TH treatment at 165 °C. The TH, BH42, BH42+55, BH55+42, and BH55 treatments caused the reduction of volatile suspended solids (VSS) by 22.6%, 17.5%, 24.6%, 23.1%, and 25.9%, respectively. The soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) content of the sludge increased by 377.5%, 323.8%, 301.3%, 286.9%, and 221.7% by the TH, BH55, BH42+55, BH55+42, and BH42 treatments, respectively. Volatile fatty acids (VFA) constituted around 40% of the sCOD in the BH-treated sludge and 6% in the TH-treated sludge. The cumulative methane yields (NmLCH4/g COD fed) of sludge treated by BH55+42 and TH were respectively 23% and 20% higher than that of the untreated sludge. For BH pretreatment, sludge treated by BH55+42 produced more methane than those treated by BH42+55, BH55, and BH42. The methane yields of the combined sludge treated by the TH and BH55+42 treatments were in the ranges of 248.9 NmLCH4/g COD to 266.1 NmLCH4/g COD fed, and 255.3 NmLCH4/g COD to 282.2 NmLCH4/g COD fed, respectively.

Experimental and Artificial Neural Network Modeling of a Upflow Anaerobic Contactor (UAC) for Biogas Production from Vinasse

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1241-1254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ousman R. Dibaba ◽  
Sandip K. Lahiri ◽  
Stephan T’Jonck ◽  
Abhishek Dutta
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Artificial Neural Network ◽  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Volatile Fatty Acids ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Pilot Scale ◽  
Organic Loading Rate ◽  
Neural Network Modeling ◽  
Artificial Neural

Abstract A pilot scale Upflow Anaerobic Contactor (UAC), based on upflow sludge blanket principle, was designed to treat vinasse waste obtained from beet molasses fermentation. An assessment of the anaerobic digestion of vinasse was carried out for the production of biogas as a source of energy. Average Organic loading rate (OLR) was around 7.5 gCOD/m3/day in steady state, increasing upto 8.1 gCOD/m3/day. The anaerobic digestion was conducted at mesophilic (30–37 °C) temperature and a stable operating condition was achieved after 81 days with average production of 65 % methane which corresponded to a maximum biogas production of 85 l/day. The optimal performance of UAC was obtained at 87 % COD removal, which corresponded to a hydraulic retention time of 16.67 days. The biogas production increased gradually with OLR, corresponding to a maximum 6.54 gCOD/m3/day (7.4 % increase from initial target). A coupled Artificial Neural Network-Differential Evolution (ANN-DE) methodology was formulated to predict chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS) and volatile fatty acids (VFA) of the effluent along with the biogas production. The method incorporated a DE approach for the efficient tuning of ANN meta-parameters such as number of nodes in hidden layer, input and output activation function and learning rate. The model prediction indicated that it can learn the nonlinear complex relationship between the parameters and able to predict the output of the contactor with reasonable accuracy. The utilization of the coupled ANN-DE model provided significant improvement to the study and helps to study the parametric effect of influential parameters on the reactor output.

scholarly journals Influence of Microwave Pre-Treatment on the Digestion and Higienisation of Waste Activated Sludge/Wpływ Dezintegracji Mikrofalowej Na Proces Fermentacji Oraz Higienizacji Nadmiernych Osadów Ściekowych

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanta Bohdziewicz ◽  
Mariusz Kuglarz ◽  
Klaudiusz Grűbel
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Microwave Irradiation ◽  
Treatment Effectiveness ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Salmonella Spp ◽  
Biogas Yield ◽  
Treatment Conditions ◽  
Higher Power ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
Treatment Step

Abstract The article presents the results of determining the most appropriate conditions of microwave sludge pre-treatment (500-1200 W), prior to its anaerobic digestion in a continuous mode. The assessment of the pre-treatment conditions (microwave power, sludge temperature after pre-treatment) was based on: the release of organic (COD, protein) and inorganic (NH4+, PO43-) substances into liquid, the quantity of methane produced, sludge higienisation and the susceptibility of the pre-treated sludge to dewatering. The power of the microwaves applied did not play significant role on the pre-treatment effectiveness. Taking into account the fact that sludge pre-treatment by microwave irradiation requires the delivery of energy, the pre-treatment by microwaves of higher power (1200 W) and resulting in sludge temperature of 70°C was recommended for further experiments. Sludge pre-treatment by means of microwave irradiation as a pre-treatment step influenced the effectiveness of the subsequent anaerobic digestion, conducted in continuous conditions, in a positive way. The largest amount of biogas was obtained for HRT in the range of 15-20 days. As compared to the sludge which did not undergo pre-treatment, daily biogas production and biogas yield increased by 18-41% and 13-35% respectively. The combination of microwave pre-treatment and mesophilic anaerobic digestion ensured the elimination of pathogens (Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli).

Sludge accumulation and conversion to methane in a septic tank treating domestic wastewater or black water

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 956-964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarek Elmitwalli
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Domestic Wastewater ◽  
Septic Tank ◽  
Black Water ◽  
Operational Temperature ◽  
Filling Time ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
Sludge Accumulation

Although the septic tank is the most applied on-site system for wastewater pre-treatment, limited research has been performed to determine sludge accumulation and biogas production in the tank. Therefore a dynamic mathematical model based on the Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) was developed for anaerobic digestion of the accumulated sludge in a septic tank treating domestic wastewater or black water. The results showed that influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the tank mainly control the filling time with sludge, while operational temperature governs characteristics of the accumulated sludge and conversion to methane. For obtaining stable sludge and high conversion, the tank needs to be operated for a period more than a year without sludge wasting. Maximum conversion to methane in the tank is about 50 and 60% for domestic wastewater and black water, respectively. The required period for sludge wasting depends on the influent COD concentration and the HRT, while characteristics of the wasted sludge are affected by operational temperature followed by the influent COD concentration and the HRT. Sludge production from the tank ranges between 0.19 to 0.22 and 0.13 to 0.15 L/(person.d), for the domestic wastewater and black water, respectively.

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