• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.532-536
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• 2016

In this study, single-stage continuous anaerobic reactors to treat sewage sludge were operated under different temperature (55 and $35^{\circ}C$; $R_{TAD}$ and $R_{MAD}$) to evaluate the reactor stability and performance of the thermophilic and mesophilic anaerobic digestion. During the overall digestion, both anaerobic reactors maintained quite stable and constant pH and total alkalinity (TA) values in the range of 6.5-8.0 and 3-4 g $CaCO_3/L$, respectively. After the start-up period, $R_{TAD}$ showed 10% higher VS removal efficiency than that of $R_{MAD}$ ($R_{TAD}$; 43.3%; $R_{MAD}$ : 33.6%). Although organic acids such as acetic and propionic acid were detected in both anaerobic reactors at the start-up period, all organic acids in $R_{TAD}$ and $R_{MAD}$ were consumed at the steady state condition. Also $R_{TAD}$ showed 31.4 % higher methane production rate (MPR) than that of $R_{MAD}$ at the steady state condition ($R_{TAD}$; 243 mL $CH_4/L/d$; $R_{MAD}$ : 185 mL $CH_4/L/d$). Meanwhile, the experimental results indicated similar methane yield between $R_{TAD}$ and $R_{MAD}$.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.28-33
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• 1997

This study was carried out to investigate factors affecting anaerobic digestion enhancement of waste activated sludge(WAS). In order to this investigation, the degradability and rupture of microorganisms cell present in WAS, and mesophilic anaerobic digestion(MAD) of these compounds, were also evaluated. The micro-organisms cell in WAS were ruptured by a mechanical jet stream and smashed under pressure of 30 bar. The rupture level of micro-organisms cell in WAS were determined using phosphate, soluble protein and soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD)concentrations. It was found that the rupture level of micro- organisms cell within WAS increased with increasing pretreatment times, and the pretreated WAS once under pressure of 30 bar resulted in an increase in VS removal and methane production of 5%, 9% over the intact WAS of 35%, 71%, respectively, in batchwise MAD of 6-day and 14-day retention time. With the pretreatment and MAD of 6-day retention time used, mesophlic bioconvertibility as the biogasification of WAS were found to be significantly higher biogas of 1, 850 ml than 300 ml under intact WAS. In conclusion it can be stated mechanical pretreatment enhances WAS bioconvertibility, while under identical treatment conditions, resulted in a considerable decrease in the bioconvertibility of intact WAS.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.43-52
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• 2013

In this study, various influent sludge pre-treatment methods were adopted to investigate their effects on the sludge digestion and methane production in combined mesophilic anaerobic and thermophilic aerobic sludge digestion process. A lab-scale sewage sludge digestion process was operated during 4 phases using different feed sludge pre-treatment strategies. In phase 1, feed sludge was supplied without any pre-treatment. In contrast, in phases 2, 3 and 4, thermal, thermal-alkaline and long time alkaline treatment (7 days) were applied to influent sludge, respectively. With sludge pre-treatment, TCOD removal was drastically increased from 44% to 76% from phases 1 to 4, respectively. Also, pre-treatment of feed sludge significantly improved the methane production rate of MAD, showing an increment from 101 to 165-256mL/L/day. Meanwhile, TCOD removal and methane production at phase 4 were not increased, compared to those at phase 3. Based on the experimental results, it was concluded that pre-treatment of feed sludge significantly increases the efficiency of sludge digestion and thermal-alkaline method was the most effective method among the pre-treatment methods examined.