Abstract
The impacts of ultrasonic pretreatment on the biodegradability of domestic sewage sludge were evaluated through a series of anaerobic digestion experiments in batch system. The gas and methane production from the sludge samples pretreated by an ultrasonic tool with different durations were measured with time. Although the biogas production increased with the extent of sludge solubilization and the period of ultrasonic pretreatment, the enhancement of sludge biodegradability was much more sensitive to the pretreatment for the relatively short periods. Most of the enhanced biodegradability by the pretreatment was appeared in the early stage of anaerobic digestion, less than 6 days. The maximum biogas production per day was observed between 4 to 6 days when the sludge was pretreated less than 10 minutes while it was obtained in the beginning for the sludge pretreated longer periods. The results suggest that the repeated alternation of low strength ultrasonic pretreatment and anaerobic digestion may be more effective than the combination of one time pretreatment for a relatively long period and following anaerobic digestion.
