Enzyme extraction by ultrasound from sludge flocs

Enzymes play essential roles in the biological processes of sludge treatment. In this article, the ultrasound method to extract enzymes from sludge flocs was presented. Results showed that using ultrasound method at 20 kHz could extract more types of enzymes than that at 40 kHz and ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid （EDTA） methods. The optimum parameters of ultrasound extraction at 20 kHz were duration of 10 min and intensity of 552 W/g TSS. Under the optimum condition, ultrasound could break the cells and extract both the extracellular and a small part of intercellular enzymes. Ultrasound intensity was apparently more susceptive to enzyme extraction than duration, suggesting that the control of intensity during ultrasound extraction was more important than that of duration. The Pearson correlation analysis between enzyme activities and cation contents revealed that the different types of enzymes had distinct cation binding characteristics.

Effects of activated sludge flocs and pellets seeds on aerobic granule properties

Aerobic granules seeded with activated sludge flocs and pellets （obtained from activated sludge flocs） were cultivated in two sequencing batch reactors and their characteristics were compared. Compared with granules seeded with activated sludge flocs, those seeded with pellets had shorter start-up time, larger diameter, better chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency, and higher hydrophobicity, suspended solid concentration, and Mg 2＋ content. The different inocula led the granule surface with different microbial morphologies, but did not result in different distribution patterns of extracellular polymeric substances and cells. The anaerobic bacterium Anoxybacillus sp. was detected in the granules seeded with pellets. These results highlighted the advantage of pellet over activated sludge floc as the seed for aerobic granulation and wastewater treatment.

Micro-analysis of nitrogen transport and conversion inside activated sludge flocs using microelectro

To investigate the nitrogen transport and conversion inside activated sludge flocs,micro-profiles of O2,NHt 4,NO-2,NO-3,and pH were measured under different operating conditions.The flocs were obtained from a laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor.Nitrification,as observed from interfacial ammonium and nitrate fluxes,was higher at pH 8.5,than at pH 6.5 and 7.5.At pH 8.5,heterotrophic bacteria used less oxygen than nitrifying bacteria,whereas at lower pH heterotrophic activity dominated.When the ratio of C to N was decreased from 20 to 10,the ammonium uptake increased.When dissolved oxygen(DO)concentration in the bulk liquid was decreased from 4 to 2 mg·L^(-1),nitrification decreased,and only 25%of the DO influx into the flocs was used for nitrification.This study indicated that nitrifying bacteria became more competitive at a higher DO concentration,a higher pH value(approximately 8.5)and a lower C/N.

Coagulation efficiency and flocs characteristics of recycling sludge during treatment of low temperature and micro-polluted water

Drinking water treatment sludge,characterized as accumulated suspended solids and organic and inorganic matter,is produced in large quantities during the coagulation process.The proper disposal,regeneration or reuse of sludge is,therefore,a significant environmental issue.Reused sludge at low temperatures is an alternative method to enhance traditional coagulation efficiency.In the present study,the recycling mass of mixed sludge and properties of raw water （such as pH and turbidity） were systematically investigated to optimize coagulation efficiency.We determined that the appropriate dosage of mixed sludge was 60 mL/L,effective initial turbidity ranges were below 45.0 NTU,and optimal pH for DOMs and turbidity removal was 6.5-7.0 and 8.0,respectively.Furthermore,by comparing the flocs characteristics with and without recycling sludge,we found that floc structures with sludge were more irregular with average size growth to 64.7 μm from 48.1 μm.Recycling sludge was a feasible and successful method for enhancing pollutants removal,and the more irregular flocs structure after recycling might be caused by breakage of reused flocs and incorporation of powdered activated carbon into larger flocs structure.Applied during the coagulation process,recycling sludge could be significant for the treatment of low temperature and micro-polluted source water.

Recovery and reuse of floc sludge for high-performance capacitors

In this paper,floc sludge was transformed into porous carbon matrix composites by acidification and KOH activation at high temperature and used as an electrode material for application in capacitors.The effects of different treatment processes on the electrochemical properties of sludge materials were compared.The results of electrochemical tests showed that the sludge electrode exhibited excellent energy storage performance after HNO3 acidification and KOH activation with a mass ratio of 3:1(KOH/C).The specific capacitance of the sludge electrode reached 287 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g.In addition,the sludge electrode material showed excellent cycle stability(specific capacity retained at 93.4%after 5000 cycles at 5 A/g).Based on XRD,FTIR,SEM,TEM,and BET surface analysis,the morphology of sludge electrode materials can be effectively regulated by chemical pretreatment.The best-performing material showed a 3D porous morphology with a large specific surface area(2588 m^(2)/g)and optimal pore size distribution,improving ion channels and charge conductivity.According to the life cycle assessment of floc sludge utilization,it reduced the resource consumption and toxicity risk by more than 90%compared with ordinary sludge disposal processes.This work provided a cost-effective and eco-friendly sludge reuse method and demonstrated the application potential of sludge-based materials in high-performance supercapacitors.

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.

Reversibility of the structure and dewaterability of anaerobic digested sludge

The reversibility of the structure and dewaterability of broken anaerobic digested sludge（ADS）is important to ensure the efficiency of sludge treatment or management processes.This study investigated the effect of continuous strong shear（CSS）and multipulse shear（MPS）on the zeta potential,size（median size,d（50））,mass fractal dimension（DF）,and capillary suction time（CST）of ADS aggregates.Moreover,the self-regrowth（SR）of broken ADS aggregates during slow mixing was also analyzed.The results show that raw ADS with d（50） of 56.5μm was insensitive to CSS–SR or MPS–SR,though the size slightly decreased after the breakage phase.For conditioned ADS with d（50） larger than 600μm,the breakage in small-scale surface erosion changed to large-scale fragmentation as the CSS strength increased.In most cases,after CSS or MPS,the broken ADS had a relatively more compact structure than before and d（50） is at least 200μm.The CST of the broken fragments from optimally dosed ADS increased,whereas that corresponding to overdosed ADS decreased.MPS treatment resulted in larger and more compact broken ADS fragments with a lower CST value than CSS.During the subsequent slow mixing,the broken ADS aggregates did not recover their charge,size,and dewaterability to the initial values before breakage.In addition,less than 15%self-regrowth in terms of percentage of the regrowth factor was observed in broken ADS after CSS at average velocity gradient no less than 1905.6 sec^（-1）.