Preliminary Study on the Treatment Efficiency of Pasteurized Lime Thermal Alkaline Hydrolysis for Excess Activated Sludge and Reduction of Tetracycline Resistance Genes

Thermal alkaline hydrolysis is a common pretreatment method for the utilization of excess activated sludge(EAS).Owing to strict environment laws and need for better energy utilization,new methods were developed in this study to improve the efficiency of pretreatment method.Direct thermal hydrolysis(TH),pasteurized thermal hydrolysis(PTH),and alkaline pasteurized thermal hydrolysis(PTH+CaO and PTH+NaOH)methods were used to treat EAS.Each method was compared and analyzed in terms of dissolution in ammonium nitrogen(NH_(4)^(+)-N)and soluble COD(SCOD)in EAS.Furthermore,the removal of tetracycline resistance genes(TRGs)and class 1 transposon gene intI1 from EAS was investigated.The NH_(4)^(+)-N and SCOD concentrations in EAS treated by PTH were 1.24 and 2.58 times higher than those of TH.However,the removal efficiency of total TRGs and intI1 between the groups was comparable.The SCOD concentration of the PTH+NaOH group was 4.37 times higher than that of the PTH group,and the removal efficiency of total TRGs was increased by 9.52%compared with that by PTH.The NH_(4)^(+)-N and SCOD concentrations of the PTH+CaO group could reach 85.04%and 92.14%of the PTH+NaOH group,but the removal efficiency of total TRGs by PTH+CaO was 19.78%lower than that by PTH+NaOH.Thus,to reduce the financial cost in actual operation,lime(CaO)can be used instead of a strong alkali(NaOH),and pasteurized steam at 70℃ instead of conventional high-temperature heating to treat EAS.This study provides a reference for the development of alkaline hydrolysis under moderate temperatures along with the removal of TRGs in EAS.

Extraction of Amino Acids from Excess Activated Sludge by Enzymatic Hydrolysis

A study was undertaken to investigate the production of amino acids from excess activated sludge (EAS) by enzymatic hydrolysis. Firstly, the protein was extracted from EAS. Secondly, the protein solution was further hydrolyzed under free enzyme or immobilized enzyme. The reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometer (ICP) were applied to determine the contents of amino acids and heavy metals, respectively. The effects of enzyme/substrate(E/S), pH, temperature, and reaction time were investigated in detail. The results indicated that, the optimum conditions for protein hydrolysis were temperature 55℃, pH 10, E/S 9 g/L, and reaction time 8 h, and the highest yield of amino acids was more than 10 g/100 g dry sludge (DS) under free enzyme. Moreover, the security and nutrition were taken into consideration. There were seven kinds of essential amino acids and ten non-essential amino acids in the raw amino acid (RAA) solution, and the contents of heavy metals were lower, living up to Hygienical standard for feeds (China). This technology widens the source of amino acids and makes the extraction of amino acids from EAS more economic and effective.