• Clean Technology
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.355-369
• /
• 2013

Economic feasibility is one of the most important factors in energy production from regenerative biomass. From the aspect, biogas from anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludge is regarded as the most economical because of its cheap substrate and additional income from the disposal of waste sludge. Sludge hydrolysis has been regarded as the rate limiting step of anaerobic digestion and many sludge pre-treatment technologies have been developed to accelerate anaerobic sludge digestion for enhanced biogas production. Various sludge pre-treatment technologies including biological, thermo hydrolysis, ultrasonic, and mechanical methods have been applied to full-scale systems. Sludge pre-treatment increased the efficiency of anaerobic digestion by enhancing hydrolysis, reducing residual soilds, and increasing biogas production. This paper introduces the characteristics of various sludge pre-treatment technologies and the energy balance and economic feasibility of each technology were compared to prepare a guideline for the selection of feasible pre-treatment technology. It was estimated that thermophilic digestion and thermal hydrolysis were most economical technology followed by Cell rupture$^{TM}$, OpenCEL$^{TM}$, MicroSludge$^{TM}$, and ultrasound. The cost for waste sludge disposal shares the biggest portion in the economic analysis, therefore, water content of the waste sludge was the most important factor to be controlled.

• New & Renewable Energy
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.20-29
• /
• 2014

The present study investigated the effects of thermal pre-treatment on the enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of waste activated sludge at varied TS concentration levels. The activated sludges were thermally oxidized for 30 minutes at $80{\sim}200^{\circ}C$ with varied TS concentrations (2%, 4% and 6%). and then, sludge characteristics, solubilization efficiency and methane production yield of thermally pre-treated sludges were analyzed. The higher the temperature in the thermal pre-treatment, the higher the concentration levels of dissolved matters such as $SCOD_{Cr}$, $NH_4{^+}$ and VFAs, which indicates that the thermal pre-treatment facilitates the hydrolysis and acid fermentation. Furthermore, the solubilization efficiency was increased in proportion to the temperature rise at all TS concentrations and was reached at 68.9%, 55.6% and 53.1%, respectively, at $200^{\circ}C$. In the BMP test of the pre-treated sludges, higher methane production yields were observed as 0.313. 0.314 and $0.299m^3\;CH_4/kg\;VS_{add}$ at the condition of TS 2% ($160^{\circ}C$), 4% ($160^{\circ}C$) and 6% ($180^{\circ}C$), respectively, and degradation rate was increased by 84%, 79% and 65% compared with non-pretreated waste activated sludge. These findings suggest the effectiveness of thermal pre-treatment of waste activated sludge for anaerobic biodegradable process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.104-116
• /
• 1996

Anaerobic digestion is generally used for the treatment of volatile organic solids such as manure and sludge from waste water treatment plants. However, the reaction rate of anaerobic process is slow, and thus it requires a large reactor volume. To minimize such a disadvantage, physical and chemical pre-treatment is generally considered. Another method to reduce the reactor size is to adopt different reactor system other than CSTR. In this paper, the effects of heat pre-treatment and reactor configurations on the anaerobic treatability of volatile solids was studied. Carrot, kale, primary sludge, and waste activated sludge was chosen as the test materials, and the BMP method was used to evaluate the maximum methane production and first order rate constants from each sample. After the heat treatment at $130^{\circ}C$ for 30min., the measured increase in SCOD per gram VS was up to 394 mg/L for the waste activated sludge. However, the methane production potential per gram VS was increased for only primary and waste activated sludge by 17-23%, remaining the same for carrot and kale. The overall methane production process for the tested solids can be described by first order reactions. The increased in reaction constant after heat pre-treatment was also more significant for the primary and waste activated sludge than that for carrot and kale. therefore, the heat pre-treatment appeared to be effective for the solids with high protein contents rather than for the solids with high carbohydrate contents. Among the four reactor systems studied, CSTR, PFR, CSTR followed by PFR, and PFR with recycle, CSTR followed by PFR appeared to be the best choice considering methane conversion rate and the operational stability.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.362-369
• /
• 2019

In this study, biodegradation efficiency improvement of mixed sludge for the anaerobic digestion process in wastewater treatment plant was investigated. In order to release the organic material contained in the sludge cell and promote the hydrolysis step, mixed sludge of 7% TS (Total Solids) was physically shear-treated at a shear strength of 1,000 ~ 4,000 rpm and a maximum of 120 mins. As a result of the comparison between mixed sludge before and after the treatment, the concentration of $SCOD_{Cr}$(Soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand-chromium method) was increased through the conversion of granular organic matter into dissolved organic matter as shear strength and treatment time increases. The solubilization efficiency increased rapidly after 30 min of solubilization application time, and they were 11.23 %, 20.10 %, 22.52 % and 25.43% at 120 min for each shear strength conditions, respectively. Additionally, the BMP(Biochemical Methane Potential) test was conducted with the optimized samples to determine the increase of methane production by the shear pre-treatment. Consequently, methane production of each samples were 0.275, 0.310, 0.323 and $0.335m^3/kg\;VS_{add}$, which indicates that methane production was increased to a maximum of 21.28% compared to the control without the solubilization process ($0.262m^3/kg\;VS_{add}$). As a result, the physical shear-treatment is a promising process for sewage sludge pre-treatment to reduce the organic waste and increase the energy production.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.107-114
• /
• 2021

This study applied with pre-treatment combined with thermal hydrolysis and seperation for disintegration of sludge. As results of particle size distribution D10, D50 and D90 of thermal hydrolyzed and centrifuged sludge was 8.6, 59.2 and 425.1 ㎛, which are lower than those of thermal hydrolyzed. The molecular weight distribution results showed that the thermal hydrolyzed sludge showed the highest proportion in the 10-100kDa range. But, Sludge, treated with combined pre-treatment, showed the highest proportion <1kDa range. Results of DOC and UVA₂₅₄ found that the organic matters of hydrolyzed sludge composed high molecular weight component above 10kDa. While, the organic matters of sludge, treated by combined pre-treatment, composed relarively low molecular weight below 1kDa. The specific methane yield of hydrolyzed and centrifuged sludge was higher 1.7 times than that of only hydrolyzed sludge.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.32 no.12
• /
• pp.1119-1125
• /
• 2010

Most of the sludge pre-treatment methods to improve the anaerobic digestibility of sludge are not practied in the fields with low economical efficiency. The venturi cavitation system (VCS) adopting hydrodynamic cavitation is simple and requires low energy. This research was conducted to investigate the optimum design and operating conditions of the VCS. The experimental results indicated that the optimum number of venturi in series was three, and the suction mode operation of the pump yielded 1.6 times higher pre-treatment efficiency per unit energy consumption than the discharge mode. The combination of venturies with different throat sizes did not affect the pre-treatment efficiency. Also, the parallel installation of the three in series venture unit yielded 30% higher pre-treatment efficiency per unit energy consumption than the single unit. Under parallel conditions, the solubilization efficiency was 5.6 mg ${\Delta}SCOD/g$ TS/kWh, which is higher than the previously reported value.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.53-63
• /
• 2018

The hydrolysis of organic solid waste, such as sludge, is the rate-limiting step of the anaerobic digestion. The longer rate-limiting step lead to decrease of treatment efficiency and increase hydraulic retention time and anaerobic digester. Therefore, the pre-treatment has been applied for accelerating the hydrolysis step. This study was investigated the effects of pre-treatment of waste activated sludge using ultrasonic and alkaline integrated treatment simultaneously. The results showed the cumulative methane production and the methane production rate increased while the lag phase decreased. Therefore ultrasonic and alkaline integrated pre-treatment of waste activated sludge resulted in acceleration of hydrolysis step in anaerobic digestion.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.53-61
• /
• 2016

The reaction of zero-valent iron (ZVI) with oxygen can produce reactive oxidants capable of oxidizing organic compounds. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of pre-treatment on sludge solubilization by ZVI and aeration. The results demonstrated that the aeration pre-treatment with ZVI method was more effective than the only aeration for improving sludge solubilization, indicating that ZVI increased the extent of sludge solubilization. In addition, removal rate of $NH_3-N$ by ZVI and aeration was found to be 34%, while only aeration was 24%. Thus, ZVI and aeration can be employed as an efficient pre-treatment option to achieve higher sludge solubilization and decrease the toxic effect of $NH_3-N$ for sludge digestion.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.299-307
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of low temperature thermal pre-treatment on biodegradation of waste activated sludge for anaerobic digestion as a countermeasure for increasing sludge generation. The experimental condition was accomplished in 2 %, 4 %, and 6 % TS concentration, and $70^{\circ}C$, $80^{\circ}C$, $90^{\circ}C$ of temperature for a maximum of 120 minutes retention time. Then, it was followed by analysis of physical/chemical properties, BMP test and composition of biogas. The biogas characteristic was evaluated by applying the modified Gomperz model. As a result, solubility of dissolved substrate, such as $SCOD_{Cr}$, soluble carbohydrate, and soluble protein, and biogas production increased as temperature increased. Solubilization efficiency at $90^{\circ}C$ was 18.4 %, 17.03 % and 16.88% in 2 %, 4 %, and 6 % TS concentration respectively. Also, solubilization rates of carbohydrate and protein similarly increased. BMP test results also showed that methane production in excess sludge increased to 0.194, 0.187 and $0.182m^3/kg$ VS. respectively, and lag phase decreased to 0.145, 0.220, 0.351 day due to acceleration of the hydrolysis step. Consequently, low-temperature thermal pre-treatment could increase biodegradability of sludge, positively affecting biogas production and sludge reduction.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.96-102
• /
• 2009

The effect of ultrasonic and alkaline pre-treatments on waste activated sludge (WAS) disintegration was investigated for improved anaerobic digestion. As WAS was treated by either methods, longer capillary suction time (CST) was required due to the break-up of cell walls, and its supernatant demonstrated increase in soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), protein content and turbidity. Ultrasonic process combined with alkaline pre-treatment demonstrated higher SCOD and protein content in the supernatant as compared with ultrasonic pre-treatment only. However, the degree of disintegration (DDCOD) of WAS decreased with increasing solid concentration as both WAS disintegration methods employed simultaneously.