Mild Thermal Pre-Treatment of Waste Activated Sludge to Increase Loading Capacity, Biogas Production, and Solids’ Degradation: A Pilot-Scale Study

• Main Authors: Adrian Gonzalez, Hongxiao Guo, Oscar Ortega-Ibáñez, Coert Petri, Jules B. van Lier, Merle de Kreuk, Alexander Hendriks
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: hydrogen peroxide; mild-temperature; pilot-scale; thermal pre-treatment; thermochemical pre-treatment; waste activated sludge
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/22/6059

Sludge pre-treatments are emerging as part of the disposal process of solid by-products of wastewater purification. One of their benefits is the increase in methane production rate and/or yield, along with higher loading capacities of existing digesters. In this study, we report the performance of a pilot-scale compartmentalized digester (volume of 18.6 m³) that utilized a mild thermal pre-treatment at 70 °C coupled with hydrogen peroxide dosing. Compared with a reference conventional anaerobic digester, this technique allowed an increased organic loading rate from 1.4 to 4.2 kg volatile solids (VS)/(m³d) and an increment in the solids degradation from 40 to 44%. To some extent, these improvements were promoted by the solubilization of the tightly-bound fraction of the extracellular polymeric substances to looser and more accessible fractions without the formation of refractory compounds. In sum, our results suggest that this pre-treatment method could increase the treatment capacity of existing digesters without significant retrofitting.