• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.825-831
• /
• 2012

The retrofitting of a thickening unit process is widely considered in municipal wastewater treatment plants in Korea to enhance the anaerobic digestion efficiency. The authors examined the effect of feed concentration (2-34.1 g VS/L) and feed to microorganism (F/M) ratio (0.50-1.35 g VS/g VS) on anaerobic batch digestion of sewage sludge. Methane yield over 90 mL $CH_4/g$ $VS_{feed}$ was found at a feed concentration in the range of 12-26 g VS/L and a F/M ratio below 0.6 g VS/g VS. A high F/M ratio decreased methane yield and rate with oragnic acid accumulation. As sudden increase of sewage sludge concentration prior to anaerobic digestion would jeopardize the digester performance due to the rasied F/M ratio, gradual increase of the sludge feed concentration or an additional biomass retention in the digester is recommended.

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

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.59-66
• /
• 2014

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of pre-aeration on sludge solubilization and the behaviors of nitrogen, dissolved sulfide, sulfate, and siloxane. The results of this study showed that soluble chemical oxygen demand in sewage sludge could be increased through pre-aeration. The pre-aeration process resulted in a higher methane yield compared to the anaerobic condition (blank). The pre-aeration of sewage sludge, therefore, was shown to be an effective method for enhancing the digestibility of the sewage sludge. In addition, this result confirms that the pre-aeration of sewage sludge prior to its anaerobic digestion accelerates the growth of methanogenic bacteria. Removal rates for $NH_3$-N and T-N increased simultaneously during pre-aeration, indicating simultaneous nitrification and denitrification. The siloxane concentration in sewage sludge decreased by 40% after 96 hr of pre-aeration; in contrast, the sulfide concentration in sewage sludge did not change. Therefore, pre-aeration can be employed as an efficient treatment option to achieve higher methane yield and lower siloxane concentration in sewage sludge. In addition, reduction of nitrogen loading by pre-aeration can reduce operating costs to achieve better effluent water quality in wastewater treatment plant and benefit the anaerobic process by minimizing the toxic effect of ammonia.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 1994

Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of digestion temperature on the settleability and dewaterability of anaerobically digested sludge. The digesters were operated at a hydraulic retention time of 20 days with a loading rate of 0.63~0.66kg volatile solids per cubic meter per day at the temperature of $35^{\circ}C$ and $55^{\circ}C$. A mixed primary and secondary municipal sludge was used as a feed. The interface height of the sludge during settling test was recorded to identify settleability. As a measure of dewaterability of the sludge, specific resistance and capillary suction time were also measured with and without chemical conditioning. Higher digestion efficiency was obtained at $55^{\circ}C$ than $35^{\circ}C$. However, the settleability and dewaterability of the sludge at $35^{\circ}C$ were quite higher than those of the sludge digested at $55^{\circ}C$. The optimum dosages of ferric chloride for sludge conditioning were 0.4% and 0.6% at $35^{\circ}C$ and $55^{\circ}C$, respectively. The filtrate COD of the sludge digested at $55^{\circ}C$ was higher than at $35^{\circ}C$, which means that poor dewaterability of the sludge result in high filtrate COD.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.247-256
• /
• 2006

This study has been conducted for the process of food wastes disposal using surplus capacity of established sewage treatment plant by co-digestion of fermented food wastes and sewage sludge after thermophilic acid fermentation of food wastes. The co-digestion of thermophilic acid fermented food wastes and sewage sludge was performed by semi-continous method in mesophilic anaerobic digestion reactor. It showed great digestion efficiency as the average SCOD and VS removal efficiency in organic loading rate 3.30g VS/L.d. were 74.2% and 73.6%, and the gas production rate and average methane content were 0.440 L/g $VS_{add}.d$ and 66.5%, respectively. Based on the results of this study, the co-digestion of thermophilic acid fermented food wastes and sewage sludge in sewage treatment plant is able to improve treatment efficiency of anaerobic digestion reactor and to dispose food wastes simultaneously, and was proved excellent economical efficiency comparing with any other treatment methods.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.853-859
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to improve low digestibility in anaerobic digestion facility of the sewage treatment plant. To perform this research, sludge digestion and digestion gas purification facilities in sewage treatment plant was applied. In the result of this study, it was very effective for sludge reduction from the improvement of digestive efficiency. In addition, it was confirmed that high purity $CH_4$ (methane) was produced. This results can be useful as basic data to improve the low digestibility in anaerobic digestion processes.

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

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 2004.09a
• /
• pp.207-210
• /
• 2004

Effect of electron accepters on anaerobic degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons by an anaerobic sludge taken from a sludge digestion tank in a soil artificially contaminated with 10,000 mg/kg soil of diesel fuel was tested. Treatments of soil with 30 mL of the digestion sludge (2,000 mg/L of vss (volatile suspended solids)) were incubated under several anaerobic conditions including nitrate reducing, sulfate reducing, methanogenic, and mixed electron accepters conditions for 120 days. Treatments with the digested sludge showed significant degradation of diesel fuel under all anaerobic conditions compare to control treatments with an autoclaved sludge and without the sludge. The amount of TPH degradation after 120days incubation was the largest in the treatment with the sludge and mixed electron accepters (75% removal of TPH) followed in order by sulfate reducing, nitrate reducing, methanegenic condition as 67%, 53％, 43%, respectively. However, the rate of TPH degradation in the nitrate- and sulfate reducing condition within 105 days were comparable with that of the mixed electron accepters condition. Microorganisms in each electron acceptor condition were plated on solid mediums containing nitrate or sulfate as sole electron acceptor and several nitrate- and sulfate reducing bacteria showed effective degradation of diesel fuel within 30 days incubations. These results suggest that anaerobic degradation of diesel fuel in soil with digested sludge is effective for practical remediation of soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.74-80
• /
• 1997

The objectives of this study were to compare the characteristics of water quality in alternative Aerobic-Anoxic(A/A) and Aerobic(Control) sludge digestion. The A/A process control parameter as the pH signal(dpH/dt) was used. Comparison of the result of A/A digestion with those of Aerobic digestion indicated a 54% saving in aeration compared to Aerobic digestion. TN removal efficiency rates of A/A and Aerobic digestion were 45% and 4%, respectively. The concentration of COD(64 mg/l and 268 mg/l for the A/A and Aerobic digestion, respectively) and Ortho-P in the supernatant were also less with A/A digestion. MLVSS and Coliform destructions were noticed similar for both digestion, but better dewatering charateristics were noted for the A/A digestion.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.47-54
• /
• 2018

This study examined the improvement of anaerobic digestion rate and sludge reduction as a result of the addition of anaerobic digestion with thickened sludge and solution of VFAs obtained from food waste. The methane production rate of the digestion system was 2.21 times higher when anaerobic digestion reactor injected into anaerobes with VFAs from food wastes of 5 percent. Also, The reduction of the amount of concentrated sludge injected will proceed rapidly because of the TCOD concentration in the digestion reactor was more than twice higher. Indirectly it was shown that the increased production system contributed significantly to the methane production efficiency.