• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 1992

Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge by the anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) was investigated to evaluate the performance of the ASBR process at a critical condition of high-solids-content fined. The reactors were operated at an HRT of 10 days with an equivalent loading rate of 0.8-1.5 gVS/L/d at 35$^{\circ}C$ The main conclusions drawn from this study were as follows: 1. Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge was possible using the ASBR in spite of high concentration of settleable solids in the sludge. The ASBRS with 3- and 4-day cycle period showed almost identical high digestion performances. 2. No adverse effect on digestion stability was observed In the ASBRS in spite of withdrawal and replenishment of 30% or 40% of liquid contents. A conventional anaerobic digester could be easily converted to the ASBR without any stability problem. 3. Flotation thickening occurred in thicken step of the ASBRS throughout steady state, and floating bed volume at the end of thicken period occupied about 70% of the working volume of the reactor Efficiency of flotation thickening in the ASBRS could be comparable to that of additional gravity thickening of a completely mixed digester. 4. Solids were accumulated rapidly in the ASBR during start-up period. Solids concentrations in the ASBRS were 2.6 times higher than that in the completely mixed control reactor at steady state. Dehydrogenase activity had a strong correlation with the solids concentration. Dehydrogenase activity of the digested flu형e in the ASBR was 2.9 times higher than that of the flu형e in the control reactor, and about 25 times higher than that of the subnatant in the ASBR. 5. Remarkable increase in equivalent gas production of 52% was observed at the ASBRS compared with the control reactor in spite of similar quality of clarified effluent from the ASBRS and control reactor. The increase in gas production from the ASBRS was believed to be combined results of accumulation of microorganisms, higher driving force applied, and additional long-term degradation of organics continuously accumulated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.815-826
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• 2013

Using a developed mathematical model and calibrated kinetic constants, numerical experiments for a aerobic digestion of wastewater sludge by SBR aerobic digestion process combined with ultrasonication (USSBR) were performed in this study. It simulated well the phenomena of the decomposition of particulate organics and the release of organic nitrogen and transformation. To achieve 40 % of particulate organics removal, USSBR process requires only 6 days of SRT and 14 W/L of ultrasonic power whereas SBR aerobic digestion process requires 12 days of SRT. Based on the model simulation results, an empirical equation was presented here. This equation will be used to predict digestion efficiency for the given variables of SRT and ultrasonic power dose. USSBR aerobic digestion process can reduce the nitrogen concentration. The optimal operation strategy for the simultaneous removal of solids and soluble nitrogen in this process is estimated to 7 days of SRT with 14 W/L of ultrasonic power dose while anoxic period was 6 hours out of 24 hours of cycle time. In this condition, 40 % of particulate organics as well as 36 % of total nitrogen will be removed and the soluble nitrogen concentration of the centrate will be lower less then 40 mg/L.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.516-522
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• 2011

The largest problem of domestic anaerobic digestion is low digestion efficiency. Reasons of the problem would be low organic matters input, low mixing efficiency in digestion tank, refractory excess sludge etc.. In this study, screw attached disk-type concentration system and a mechanical mixing system, solubilization facility improvements were performed to solve problems. Through these improvements, the sludge conc. of the concentrator increased 2.6-fold and the volume reduction efficiency was increased 3.0-fold. In addition, the dead-space is reduced by mechanical agitation. Anaerobic digester gas production in the digestion tank is increased from $193.8m^3$ to $386.0m^3$ per day. Digestion efficiency is improved to 54.6% from 47.6%. Digestion gas production is increased from $0.30Nm^3/kg$ VS to $0.42Nm^3/kg$ VS.

• 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 environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.130-138
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• 1999

The feasibility of municipal sewage sludge digestion was investigated by using thermophilic anaerobic sequencing batch reactor(ASBR). One-day settle time was enough for the high performance of solid-liquid separation. The conversion of semi-continuous mode to sequencing batch mode is easily achieved without any adverse effects, although the large amount of sludge equal to the volume ratio of 0.3~06 to reactor volume was added in the feed step of the start-up. The ASBRs had higher conversion capability of organics to biogas than the control reactor. Gas yields of the ASBRs were increased by the average of 50% over the control reactor across a range of hydraulic retention time(HRT)s from 10days to 5days. The thermophilic reactors showed higher gas production than mesophilic reactor. Removal efficiencies of organic matter exceeded 80% on the basis of supernatants, except that at the reactor. Solid-liquid separation was essential in the performance of the ASBR, especially, at the lower HFT. The ASBRs were highly efficient in the retention of activated biomass within the reactor. thus compensating for increased equivalent organic loading rate through increased solids retention times followed by the increased solids, while maintaining shorter HRTs.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.61-70
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• 2012

Feasibility of co-digestion was investigated by a series of anaerobic batch experiments using sewage sludge, swine waste, and food waste leachate as substrates. The organic solid wastes were collected from M city, where the daily productions of sewage sludge, swine waste, and food waste leachate were 178 ton/d, 150 ton/d, and 8 ton/d, respectively. Both swine waste and food waste leachate showed superior methane yields, methane productivities, and organic pollutant removal efficiencies compared to sewage sludge. Co-digestion of the total amounts of organic solid wastes would enhance methane production by 5.60 times $(530\;m^{3}\;CH_{4}/d\;{\rightarrow}\;2,968\;m^{3}\;CH_{4}/d)$. However, it also increase the amount of digestate by 1.88 times with 3.79 to 4.92 times higher pollutants (chemical oxygen demands total nitrogen, and total phosphorus) loading rates. Co-digestion of organic solid wastes is a valid strategy to enhance the performance of an anaerobic sludge digester and the energy independence of a wastewater treatment plant. Anyhow,the increment of digestate with higher pollutant loading would need a careful counterplan in the operation of the main stream of the treatment plant.

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

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.542-546
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• 2009

Methane production using the mixed organic wastes of peel-type fruit wastes from apple or orange and sewage sludge was investigated in the batch anaerobic degradation process. When apple or orange peels with sewage sludge were used as mixed substrates, higher methane production was achieved under the condition of 3 : 7 (fruit peel : sewage sludge) mixing ratio. However, above the 3 : 7 mixing ratio, the pH of mixture was decreased from 8.0 to 4.5~4.7 due to organic acid production from the fruit wastes. Subsequently, methane production was low. The results in this study could be effectively applied to the methane gas production system as a bioenergy in the mixed batch anaerobic digestion process using the peel-type fruit wastes and sewage sludge.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2014

Ordinary heterotrophic organism (OHO) active biomass plays key roles in biological wastewater treatment processes. However, due to the lack of measurement techniques, the OHO active biomass exists hypothetically within the design and simulation of biological wastewater treatment processes. This research was purposed to develop a quick and easy quantifying technique for the OHO active biomass applying a modified batch aerobic growth test. Two nitrification-denitrification activated sludge systems, with 10- and 20-day sludge ages, were operated to provide well-cultured mixed liquor to the batch tests. A steady state design model was firstly applied to quantify the "theoretical" OHO active biomass concentration of the two parent systems. The mixed liquor from the parent systems was then inoculated to a batch growth test and a batch digestion test to estimate the "measured" OHO active biomass concentration in the mixed liquor. The measured OHO active biomass concentrations with the batch growth test and the batch digestion test were compared to the theoretical concentrations of the parent system. The measured concentrations with the batch growth test were generally smaller than the theoretical concentrations. However, the measured concentrations with the batch aerobic digestion tests showed a good correlation to the theoretical concentrations. Thus, a different microbial growth condition (i.e., a higher food/biomass ratio) in the batch growth test, compared to the parent system or the batch digestion test, was found to cause underestimation of the OHO active biomass concentrations.