Enhanced Methane Production from Pretreatment of Waste Activated Sludge by Economically Feasible Biocatalysts

Tae-Hoon Kim, Dayeong Song, Jung-Sup Lee and Yeo-Myeong Yun ()
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Tae-Hoon Kim: Department of Environmental Engineering, Chungbuk National University, 1 Chungdae-ro, Seowon-Gu, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea
Dayeong Song: Department of Environmental Engineering, Chungbuk National University, 1 Chungdae-ro, Seowon-Gu, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea
Jung-Sup Lee: Department of Environmental Engineering, Chungbuk National University, 1 Chungdae-ro, Seowon-Gu, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea
Yeo-Myeong Yun: Department of Environmental Engineering, Chungbuk National University, 1 Chungdae-ro, Seowon-Gu, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Crude hydrolytic extracellular enzymes (CHEEs) generated by a mixed culture of microorganisms during fermentation have a high potential as economically feasible biocatalysts for the hydrolysis of complex organic wastes. This study investigates the feasibility of CHEEs as substitutes for commercial enzymes based on a series of anaerobic batch tests for CH 4 production fed by pretreated waste activated sludge (WAS). The results showed that cellulase presented the highest CH 4 yield of 99.1 mL·CH 4 /g·COD of WAS among the samples pretreated with single commercial enzymes, with a yield 34% higher than that of the control sample. A higher diversity of commercial enzymes used in the pretreatment led to higher CH 4 production from WAS. The sample pretreated with a mixture of four commercial enzymes (amylase + protease + cellulase + lipase, APCL) presented a CH 4 yield of 216.0 mL·CH 4 /g·COD of WAS. The WAS prepared with CHEEs resulted in a CH 4 yield of 211.9 mL·CH 4 /g·COD of WAS, which is comparable to the performance of the sample pretreated with APCL. The results of the batch tests using pretreated WAS for different APCL concentrations showed that the CH 4 yield of WAS pretreated with CHEEs was comparable to the CH 4 yield of 0.34 g·APCL/g·COD of WAS.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; crude hydrolytic extracellular enzyme; enzymatic pretreatment; waste activated sludge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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