Abstract
This study was carried out to examine the effect of gamma irradiation on the physico-chemical characteristics and ultimate anaerobic biodegradability of sewage sludge. The results found that the solubilization rates of SCOD in wasted activated sludge(WAS) and thickened sludge(T-S) with gamma irradiation of 3kGy were 8 times and 7 times greater than these of the raw WAS and T-S without the irradiation, respectively; each soluble concentration protein were 4 times and 3 times greater than these of the raw WAS and T-S; each soluble carbohydrate concentration was 8 times and 6 times greater than these of the raw WAS and T-S. The ultimate anaerobic biodegradabilities of WAS and T-S with gamma irradiation were 51 % and 50%, which corresponds to each 8% and 10% greater than these of the raw sludges. Approximately 83% and 81% of the each biodegradable substrates in the irradiated WAS and the T-S were degraded within 11 days with the first order decay rate coefficients, $k_1$ that ranged $0.143{\sim}0.164day^{-1}$ for WAS and $0.134{\sim}0.152day^{-1}$ for T-S. Based on the results, it can be concluded that when irradiated with gamma the solubilization of sewage sludge greatly increases resulting in substrates suitable for the subsequent biological treatment processes.