Effect of deflocculation on the efficiency of low-energy microwave pretreatment and anaerobic biodegradation of waste activated sludge

A. Vimala Ebenezer, P. Arulazhagan, S. Adish Kumar, Ick-Tae Yeom and J. Rajesh Banu

Applied Energy, 2015, vol. 145, issue C, 104-110

Abstract: This study focuses on improving the efficiency of the microwave (MW) pretreatment of waste activated sludge (WAS) through deflocculation mediated by sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP), a cationic binding agent. Deflocculated sludge was subjected to MW pretreatment to assess its impact on biomass disintegration. At the optimised energy for MW pretreatment (14,000kJ/kg TS), the chemical oxygen demand (COD) solubilisation was 28% and 21% and the reduction in suspended solids (SS) was 38% and 26%, respectively, for deflocculated (treated with a cationic binding agent followed by microwaves) and flocculated (treated by microwaves alone) sludge samples. The formation of volatile fatty acids in the deflocculated sludge medium (840mg/L) was comparatively higher than that in the flocculated sludge (420mg/L) and the control (62mg/L). This study indicates that deflocculated sludge is more amenable to hydrolysis. The results of a test of biochemical methane potential also confirmed the greater amenability of deflocculated sludge for anaerobic degradation.

Keywords: Waste activated sludge; Sodium tripolyphosphate; Deflocculation; Microwave irradiation; Biogas; Pretreatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:145:y:2015:i:c:p:104-110

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.133

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