• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.570-576
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• 2001

Thermophilic aerobic bacteria were applied in the degradation of industrial waste activated sludge (WAS) on a laboratory scale expreiment. The performance of digestion was estimated by measuring the reduction of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and total organic carbon (TOC). Among three strains of Bacillus stearothermophilus and three strains of Thermus species, B. stearothemophilus ATCC 31197 showed the best overall efficiency level for the degradation of industrial WAS, which was collected from a wastewater treatment plant in an oil refinery factory. Industrial WAS coul be successfully detraded in a batch digestion with ATCC 31197. The stability of the digestion process with ATCC 31197 was successfully verified by semi-continuous (fill-and-draw) digestion experiment. From the results of this study, it was shown that the thermophilic aerobic digestion process with ATCC 31197 could efficiently be applied to the degradation of industrial WAS.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2009

The thermophilic aerobic digestion (TAD) process is recognized as an effective method for rapid waste activated sludge (WAS) degradation and the deactivation of pathogenic microorganisms. Yet, high energy costs due to heating and aeration have limited the commercialization of economical TAD processes. Previous research on autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion (ATAD) has already reduced the heating cost. However, only a few studies have focused on reducing the aeration cost. Therefore, this study applied a two-step aeration control strategy to a fill-and-draw mode semicontinuous TAD process. The NADH-dependent fluorescence was monitored throughout the TAD experiment, and the aeration rate shifted according to the fluorescence intensity. As a result, the simple two-step aeration control operation achieved a 20.3% reduction in the total aeration, while maintaining an effective and stable operation. It is also expected that more savings can be achieved with a further reduction of the lower aeration rate or multisegmentation of the aeration rate.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.906-912
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• 2007

A lab-scale thermophilic aerobic digestion (TAD) system was operated at $64^{\circ}C$ with mixed primary and secondary sludges taken from a large wastewater treatment plant. The semi-continuously operated reactor at HRTs of 1, 3 and 6 days indicated that longer HRT could stabilize sludge organics and solids comparable to anaerobic digestion. It has been found that reduced HRT of 3 and 1 day produced the effluent with highly biodegradable soluble organics, indicating the possibility of energy recovery in TAD. No proof of biological nitrification was observed at thermophilic operating temperature of $64^{\circ}C$, while nitrogen removal seemed due to nitrogen exertion during the aerobic thermophilic cell synthesis as well as ammonia stripping.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.251-262
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• 2016

The biodegradability and decomposition efficiencies increase with the pre-treatment of sludge in a digestion process. In this study, the feasibility of ultrasound coupled with potassium permanganate oxidation as a disintegration method and digestibility of aerobic reactor fed with disintegrated sludge with ultrasound coupled potassium permanganate were investigated. The first stage of the study focused on determining the optimum condition for ultrasonic pre-treatment for achieving better destruction efficiency of sludge. The second part of the study, the aerobic digestibility of sludge disintegrated with ultrasound and potassium permanganate oxidation alone and combined were examined comparatively. The results showed that when 20 min of ultrasonic pre-treatment applied, the specific energy output was 49384 kJ/kgTS with disintegration degree of 58.84%. During the operation of aerobic digester, VS/TS ratios of digesters fed with disintegrated sludge decreased indicating that disintegration methods could obviously enhance aerobic digestion performance. The highest reduction in volatile solids was 75% in the digester fed with ultrasound+potassium permanganate disintegrated sludge at the end of the operation compared to digester fed with raw sludge. Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) levels in sludge supernatant increased with this combined method significantly. Besides, it promoted the production of ${\bullet}OH$, thus enhancing the release of Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) from the sludge. Disintegration with all methods used in this study could not improve Capillary Suction Time (CST) reduction in disintegrated digesters during the operation. The results demonstrated that the combined ultrasound treatment and potassium permanganate oxidation method improves the biodegradability compared to control reactor or their single application.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.90-96
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• 2008

In order to meet the stringent requirement of sludge disposal and to find ecological alternative, aerobic digestion coupled with alkaline pretreatment was studied. The treated sludge was tested for the potential of liquid fertilizer. In the aerobic digestion, it was obvious that the performance of digester B(fed with the sludge pretreated by NaOH) was better than that of digester A(fed with raw sludge) in terms of COD and SS removal. SS and VSS removal rates in digester B were 66% and 69%, respectively. At 5 days, TSS removal rate reached 47% in the digester B, which was 71% of final TSS removal rate. It revealed that the pretreatment process can shorten the retention time of aerobic digestion. 94.1% of TCOD in the raw sludge was reduced by alkaline pretreatment and aerobic digestion. Final SCOD was in the range of 220$\sim$230 mg/L implying the sludge was stabilized. Nitrification and pH drop were observed in the aerobic digestion. Final nitrate concentrations in digester A and B were 445.4 and 223.1 mg/L and final pH in digester B was 3.0. Biological assays reported that leaf size of cucumber seedling increased with nitrate concentration and sludge to soil ratio. The sludge treated by alkaline and aerobic digestion promoted the growth of seedling leaf and stem remarkably compared to raw sludge. In contrast, the aerobically digested sludge without pretreatment improved leaf growth and inhibited stem growth.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.763-770
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of mechanical(ball-mill) solubilization of excess sludge especially focused on the TSS(total suspended solid) reduction during the conventional aerobic digestion of sewage sludges including primary and/or excess sludge, HRT was examined at the 10 days and 20 days. According to the results of this study, TSS removal efficiency of solubilized excess sludge was almost two times higher than that of non-solubilized excess sludge. And as the proportion of the primary sludge increased, TSS removal efficiency became worse because primary sludge rarely contained microbial cells which could be easily solubilized physically. It was also proved that by the application of proper solubilization techniques to the excess sludge, HRT for the aerobic digestion could be lessened(above 50%) dramatically keeping the same or better digestion performance. The fact that between primary and excess sludges, only the excess sludge is quite effective in the sludge solubilization and in it's reduction says that excess sludge releasing sources are key-point in the sludge cake reduction field as a source control.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6B
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• pp.669-675
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• 2006

Intermittent aerobic digestion experiments using a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) were carried out in this study. Aeration ratio was found to be an important operation factor for the reduction of solids and nitrogen. As the sludge digested, organic nitrogen was released from the solids and oxidized to nitrate nitrogen. Biological denitrification was also significant and the denitrification rate was limited by aeration ratio. Under the condition of 0.25-0.75 of aeration ratio, acclimation of ammonia nitrogen was not observed and pH were preserved near neutral in the intermittent aerobic digestion. As the aeration ratio increased, solids reduction was increased whereas dissolved nitrogen removal was decreased. Based on the experiments, 17-2% of VSS reduction and over 80% of dissolved nitrogen removal were practicable by intermittent aerobic digestion using a SBR when the MSRT were designed 8-32 days and aeration ratio was operated about 0.25-0.75.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.82-87
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• 2000

생물학적 슬러지를 대상으로 간헐포기 소화와 호기성 소화의 회분실험을 실시하였다. 생물학적 슬러지의 간헐포기 및 호기성 소화 초기단계에서 미생물의 감량은 주로 내생 호흡에 의해 이루어졌다. 이 단계에서 질소는 곧바로 용출되지 않고 슬러지내에 잔존함으로서 슬러지의 질소함량은 일시적으로 증가한다. 그러나 소화후반에서는 최초의 질소함량수준으로 다시 감소하였다. 34일간의 회분식 소화에서 호기성 소화의 총질소 제거효율은 0.1%로서 거의 제거가 안된 반면, 포기 비율 0.25, 05 및 0.75인 간헐포기 소화에서는 각각 42.7%, 42.5% 및 17.6%로 나타나 간헐포기 소화가 호기성 소화보다 질소 제거측면에서 우수하였다. VSS의 감소에 따라 슬러지내의 인도 수중으로 용출하였으나, 인 용출율은 VSS 감소율 보다 훨씬 낮았고 그 결과 소화슬러지의 인 함량은 지속적으로 증가하였다. 호기성 소화와 간헐포기 소화는 소화슬러지의 인 함량이 증가하는 공정이므로 반송수의 인 부하는 상대적으로 낮아지게 되고 이는 하수의 영양염류 제거측면에서 긍정적인 효과를 미칠 것으로 기대된다.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.875-883
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• 2006

The carbon and nitrogen removal process using PVA-gel (Polyvinyl Alcohol) immobilized microorganisms was studied. The process has been operated under diverse process conditions for 12 months. The process consists of denitrification with internal recycle of 300%, nitrification, aerobic digestion reactors and settling tank. Nitrificatoin and nitrogen removal efficiency according to gel packing ratio and temperature were studied. Yield for Heterotrophs ($Y_H$), decay coefficient for Heterotrophs($b_H$) in aerobic digestion reactor were determined to seize sludge reduction mechanism and compared with typical data of activated sludge process. Then SRT in aerobic digestion reactor was determined on an experimental basis and sludge reduction efficiency was calculated. The process was implemented successfully with sludge reduction efficiency of 92.0~98.5% on a basis of biomass.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.370-375
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• 2004

Synthetic organic polyelectrolytes can be used to condition sludges to enhance their dewaterability. When conditioning biological sludges, the charge on the polymer has a significant impact on the effectiveness of the polymer as a conditioner. The objectives of this investigation were to determine the most effective type and dosage of polymer for conditioning digested sludge prior to dewatering, and to investigate the relationship between dewaterability and particle size. 3 types of digested sludge were used under the different digestion processes like anaerobic digestion, aerobic digestion and intermittent aerobic digestion. CST(capillary suction time), TTF(time-to-filter) and SRF(specific resistance to filtration) were tested as a dewaterability index and the number of particle distribution was analyzed using particle size analyzer. The results indicate that cationic polymer appears to be required for effective conditioning of these 3 types digested sludge and the optimal polymer dosage is about 0.6% of SS. CST and TTF are well correlated with mean particle diameter of which the dimension order is 1.7.