A new process to improve short-chain fatty acids and bio-methane generation from waste activated sludge

As an important intermediate product, short-chain fatty acids（SCFAs） can be generated after hydrolysis and acidification from waste activated sludge, and then can be transformed to methane during anaerobic digestion process. In order to obtain more SCFA and methane,most studies in literatures were centered on enhancing the hydrolysis of sludge anaerobic digestion which was proved as un-efficient. Though the alkaline pretreatment in our previous study increased both the hydrolysis and acidification processes, it had a vast chemical cost which was considered uneconomical. In this paper, a low energy consumption pretreatment method, i.e. enhanced the whole three stages of the anaerobic fermentation processes at the same time, was reported, by which hydrolysis and acidification were both enhanced, and the SCFA and methane generation can be significantly improved with a small quantity of chemical input. Firstly, the effect of different pretreated temperatures and pretreatment time on sludge hydrolyzation was compared. It was found that sludge pretreated at 100°C for 60 min can achieve the maximal hydrolyzation. Further, effects of different initial p Hs on acidification of the thermal pretreated sludge were investigated and the highest SCFA was observed at initial p H 9.0with fermentation time of 6 d, the production of which was 348.63 mg COD/g VSS（6.8 times higher than the blank test） and the acetic acid was dominant acid. Then, the mechanisms for this new pretreatment significantly improving SCFA production were discussed. Finally,the effect of this low energy consumption pretreatment on methane generation was investigated.

Determining short chain fatty acids in sewage sludge hydrolysate: A comparison of three analytical methods and investigation of sample storage effects

In anaerobic digestion, the production of short-chain fatty acids （SCFAs） can be beneficial or harmful to the overall process, depending on the concentration of accumulated acids. Therefore, the accurate determination of the SCFA concentration in both fresh and stored sludge hydrolysates is important. To select a suitable method for monitoring SCFAs during the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge, the accuracy of three available analytical methods, including 5 pH point acid titration （TITRA5）, gas chromatography （GC）, and spectrophotometry, were compared in the present study. The results revealed that TITRA5 and GC displayed better agreement in the achieved measurements and higher precision and accuracy than the spectrophotometric assay, as supported by the application of different statistical models. TITRA5 excelled in titrating unfiltered hydrolysate while simultaneously measuring the alkalinity, whereas the GC method provided detailed information on the contribution of different fatty acids to the total acidity. In contrast, the spectrophotometric assay suffered from many forms of interference, depending on the sample＇s matrix. SCFA production followed the pattern of enzymatic reactions and fitted the Michaelis-Menten model. In addition to promoting TITRA5 as an accurate and robust analytical tool for routine SCFA analyses, this comparative study also demonstrated the possibility of storing hydrolysate samples at different temperatures and durations without altering the SCFA measurements.

Influencing mechanism of high solid concentration on anaerobic mono-digestion of sewage sludge without agitation

High-solids anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge was a promising process, but high solid concentra- tion negatively influenced methane production. The influencing mechanism was systematically analyzed in this study through a series of static anaerobic digestion experiments at total solids （TS） contents of 3%--15%. The results showed that TS 6% was the boundary between low- solids and high-solids anaerobic digestion, and the accumulative methane yield decreased exponentially when TS increased from 6% to 15%. The performance of anaerobic digestion was directly determined by the efficiency of mass transfer, and the relation between methane yield and sludge diffusive coefficients was well described by a power function. Thus, the increasing TS resulted in an exponential increase in sludge viscosity but an exponential decrease in diffusive coefficient. The blocked mass transfer led to the accumulation of volatile fatty acids （VFAs） and free ammonia. Acetic metabolism was the main process, whereas butyric and propionic metabolisms occurred at the initial stage of high-solids anaerobic digestion. The concentration of VFAs reached the maximum at the initial stage, which were still lower than the threshold influencing methanogens. The concen- tration of free ammonia increased gradually, and the methanogenesis was inhibited when free ammonia nitro- gen exceeded 50 mg.L^-1. Consequently, the deterioration of high-solids anaerobic digestion was related to the blocked mass transfer and the resulting ammonia accumu- lation.

Improvement of sludge dewaterability with modified cinder via affecting EPS

The relationship between the improvement of sludge dewaterability and variation of organic matters has been studied in the process of sludge pre-conditioning with modified cinder, especially for extracellular polymeric substances （EPS） in the sludge. During the conditioning process, the decreases of total organic carbon （TOC） and soluble chemical oxygen demand （SCOD） were obviously in the supernatant especially for the acid modified cinder （ACMC）, which could be attributed to the processes of adsorption and sweeping. The reduction of polysaccharide and protein in supernatant indicated that ACMC might adsorb EPS so that the tightly bound EPS （TB-EPS） decreased in sludge. In the case of ACMC addition with 24 g·L^-1, SRF of the sludge decreased from 7.85 × 10^12 m·kg^-1 to 2.06× 10^12 m·kg^-1, and the filter cake moisture decreased from 85% to 60%. The reconstruction of ＂floc mass＂ was confirmed as the main sludge conditioning mechanism. ACMC promoted the dewatering performance through the charge neutralization and adsorption bridging with the negative EPS, and provided firm and dense structure for sludge floc as skeleton builder. The passages for water quick transmitting were built to avoid collapsing during the high-pressure process.

Photodegradation of Orange Ⅱ using waste paper sludge-derived heterogeneous catalyst in the presence of oxalate under ultraviolet light emitting diode irradiation

A waste paper sludge-derived heterogeneous catalyst（WPS-Fe-350） was synthesized via a facile method and successfully applied for the degradation of Orange Ⅱ in the presence of oxalic acid under the illumination of ultraviolet light emitting diode（UV-LED） Powder X-ray diffraction,Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy,scanning electronic microscopy and N2 sorption isotherm analysis indicated the formation of α-Fe2O3 in the mesoporous nanocomposite.The degradation test showed that WPS-Fe-350 exhibited rapid Orange Ⅱ（OⅡ） degradation and mineralization in the presence of oxalic acid under the illumination of UV-LED.The effects of p H,oxalic acid concentration and dosage of the catalyst on the degradation of OⅡ were evaluated,respectively.Under the optimal conditions（1 g/L catalyst dosage,2 mmol/L oxalic acid and p H 3.0）,the degradation percentage for a solution containing 30 mg/L OⅡ reached 83.4% under illumination by UV-LED for 80 min.Moreover,five cyclic tests for OⅡ degradation suggested that WPS-Fe-350 exhibited excellent stability of catalytic activity.Hence,this study provides an alternative environmentally friendly way to reuse waste paper sludge and an effective and economically viable method for degradation of azo dyes and other refractory organic pollutants in water.