Treating both wastewater and excess sludge with an innovative process

The innovative process consists of biological unit for wastewater treatment and ozonation unit for excess sludge treatment. An aerobic membrane bioreactor(MBR) was used to remove organics and nitrogen, and an anaerobic reactor was added to the biological unit for the release of phosphorus contained at aerobic sludge to enhance the removal of phosphorus. For the excess sludge produced in the MBR, which was fed to ozone contact column and reacted with ozone, then the ozonated sludge was returned to the MBR for further biological treatment. Experimental results showed that this process could remove organics, nitrogen and phosphorus efficiently, and the removals for COD, NH 3-N, TN and TP were 93.17%, 97.57%, 82.77% and 79.5%, respectively. Batch test indicated that the specific nitrification rate and specific denitrification rate of the MBR were 1.03 mg NH 3-N/(gMLSS·h) and 0.56 mg NOx-N/(gMLSS·h), and denitrification seems to be the rate-limiting step. Under the test conditions, the sludge concentration in the MBR was kept at 5000—6000 mg/L, and the wasted sludge was ozonated at an ozone dosage of 0.10 kgO 3/kgSS. During the experimental period of two months, no excess sludge was wasted, and a zero withdrawal of excess sludge was implemented. Through economic analysis, it was found that an additional ozonation operating cost for treatment of both wastewater and excess sludge was only 0.045 RMB Yuan(USD 0.0054)/m 3 wastewater.

Releasing characteristics of phosphorus and other substances during thermal treatment of excess sludge

The releasing characteristics of phosphorus, nitrogen compounds, organics, and some metal cations during thermal treatment of excess sludge were investigated. It was found that during heating not only phosphorus, but also nitrogen compounds, organics, and some metal cations could be released in abundance. The maximum orthophosphate （ortho-P） release of about 90 mg/L in concentration was observed at 50℃ in 1 h. Except for volatile fatty acids （VFAs）, comparatively little total nitrogen （TN）, total organic carbon （TOC）, and metal cations were released at the same time. Such results might favor further process of phosphorus recovery. VFAs were considerably released only at 50℃. Acetic, butyric, and propionic acid were the most abundant components in turn and their releasing profiles exhibited good linear relationship with time （R2 = 0.9977, 0.9624, and 0.8908, respectively）. The concentrations of Mg^2＋ and K^＋ increased with time and temperature during thermal treatment, but Ca^2＋ decreased. The release of Mg^2＋ and K^＋ agreed well with TP release （R^2 = 0.9892 and 0.9476, respectively）. Temperature in the experimental range had very little impact on the linear relationships, especially of Mg^2＋. Moreover, the parameter of mixed liquor suspended solids （MLSS） was found to be an important factor for thermal sludge treatment as the released ortho-P and total phosphorus （TP） at 50℃ increased more than one-fold when MLSS was increased from 4000 to 8000 mg/L.

A novel approach to treat combined domestic wastewater and excess sludge in MBR

Domestic wastewater was treated by combined anaerobic biofilm aerobic membrane bioreactor(MBR) process, and part biomass in MBR was withdrawn to treat with ozone, then the ozonated sludge was returned to anaerobic inlet. In aerobic MBR, MLSS and DO were controlled at 3000—3500 mg/L and 0 8 mg/L respectively. Comparing the experimental results of two stages, it was noticed that ozonation did not affect the removal efficiency for organics but had a significant influence on the removals of NH 3 N and TN. During the ozonation period of two months, no excess sludge was wasted, and a zero sludge yield was obtained.

Study on Effect of Performance on Excess Sludge Disintegration by Ozone

In order to study the effect of excess sludge ozonation, a continuous experiment in lab scale process was carried out. During the treatment process, a high level of ozone was produced by the electrolysis-type ozone generator, and various parameters, such as Soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand （SCOD）, Mixed Liquor Suspended Solids （MLSS）, Mixed Liquor Volatile Suspended Solids （MLVSS）, pH and so on, which char- acterize sludge were investigated. A substantial reduction in the volume of sludge and the release of intracellular materials were observed： SCOD proliferated as a consequence of extending the ozone feeding time; MLSS and MLVSS, especially the ratio of MLVSS to MLSS, dwindled as the action time rose. Through analyzing the effluent quality and excess sludge activity, the sludge-water volume mixture ratio of 1 ： 20 with 50 -60 minutes＇ oxidation treatment was found to be the optimal condition for ozonic disintegration of excess sludge. A remarkable sludge reduction rate of 57% could be achieved under the ozone feeding time of 40 minutes, which revealed the optimal action time.

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.

Transformation and migration of phosphorus in excess sludge reduction pretreatment by alkaline ferrate oxidation combined with anaerobic digestion

Recently,more and more attention has been paid to the strong oxidation ability of newly prepared potassium ferrate(NAPF) in sludge reduction process,but less attention has been paid to the change of phosphorus in this process.The feasibility of phosphorus migration and transformation during excess sludge reduction pretre atment using NAPF pre-oxidation combined with anaerobic digestion was investigated.After 70 mg/g suspended solids NAPF pretreatment and 16 days anaerobic digestion,the solid-phase volatile suspended solids decreased by 44.2%,and much organic matter had been released into the liquid-phase and then degraded during digestion by indigenous microorganisms.As the sludge pre-oxidation process was performed,solid-phase organic phosphorus and chemically combined phosphorus also released into the liquid-phase as PO4^3-,peaking at 100 mg/L.During anaerobic digestion,the Fe3+in the liquid-phase was gradually reduced to Fe2+,and then formed Fe^2+-PO4^3- compound crystals and re-migrated to the solid-phase.The concentration of PO4^3- decreased to 17.08± 1.1 mg/L in the liquid-phase after anaerobic digestion.Finally,the phosphorus in the Fe^2+-PO4^3- compound accounts for 80% of the total phosphorus in the solid-phase.A large number of vivianite crystals in sludge were observed.Therefore,this technology not only effectively reduces sludge,but also increases the proportion of PO43-in the sludge in the form of Vivianite.

Comparison between inhibitor and uncoupler for minimizing excess sludge production of an activated sludge process

In order to study the minimization of excess sludge production,the reduction in the excess sludge production in the presence of an inhibitor and uncoupler was studied in this work.The experimental results show that such an addition could effectively reduce the production of excess sludge.With the energy uncoupling model established in this work,energy uncoupling coefficient(Eu)was used to evaluate the reduction in excess sludge production.The energy uncoupling coefficients in the presence of dinitrophenol(dNP),Zn^(2+),and Cu^(2+)was 0.75,0.46,and 0.18,respectively.The analysis demonstrated that energy spilling occurred in the presence of dNP,and that dNP was an effective uncoupler for reducing the production of excess activated sludge without affecting the microbial respiration activity.

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.

Sludge reduction during brewery wastewater treatment by hydrolyzation-food chain reactor system

During brewery wastewater treatment by a hydrolyzation-food chain reactor(FCR)system,sludge was recycled to the anaerobic segment.With the function of hydrolyzation acidification in the anaerobic segment and the processes of aerobic oxidation and antagonism,preda-tion,interaction and symbiosis among microbes in multi-level oxidation segment,residual sludge could be reduced effectively.The 6-month dynamic experiments show that the average chemical oxygen demand(COD)removal ratio was 92.6% and average sludge production of the aerobic segment was 8.14%,with the COD of the influent at 960–1720 mg/L and hydraulic retention time(HRT)of 12 h.Since the producedsludge could be recycled and hydrolyzed in the anaerobic segment,no excess sludge was produced during the steady running for this system.

Effect of sodium alginate on phosphorus recovery by vivianite precipitation

There are good prospects for phosphorus recovery from excess sludge by vivianite crystallization while a large number of extracellular polymeric substances in sludge will have impact on vivianite precipitation.In this study,as a representative of extracellular polymeric substance,the effect of sodium alginate(SA)on phosphorus recovery by vivianite precipitation under different initial SA concentrations(0–800 mg/L),p H values(6.5–9.0)and Fe/P molar ratios(1:1–2.4:1)was investigated using synthetic wastewater.The results showed that SA in low concentrations(≤400 mg/L)had little inhibitory effect on the phosphorus recovery rate.However,when the concentration of SA was larger than 400 mg/L,the phosphorus recovery rate decreased significantly with increasing SA concentrations.The inhibition rate of 800 mg/L SA was about 3 times as large as that of 400 mg/L SA.It was worth noting that the inhibitory effect of SA on vivianite precipitation decreased with increasing initial p H and Fe/P molar ratios.Additionally,SA has no obvious influence on the composition of products,but the morphology of harvested crystals was transformed from branches to plates or rods in uneven sizes.