• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.763-770
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of mechanical(ball-mill) solubilization of excess sludge especially focused on the TSS(total suspended solid) reduction during the conventional aerobic digestion of sewage sludges including primary and/or excess sludge, HRT was examined at the 10 days and 20 days. According to the results of this study, TSS removal efficiency of solubilized excess sludge was almost two times higher than that of non-solubilized excess sludge. And as the proportion of the primary sludge increased, TSS removal efficiency became worse because primary sludge rarely contained microbial cells which could be easily solubilized physically. It was also proved that by the application of proper solubilization techniques to the excess sludge, HRT for the aerobic digestion could be lessened(above 50%) dramatically keeping the same or better digestion performance. The fact that between primary and excess sludges, only the excess sludge is quite effective in the sludge solubilization and in it's reduction says that excess sludge releasing sources are key-point in the sludge cake reduction field as a source control.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.41-46
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• 2021

In order to investigate the degree of sewage sludge solubilizaion using ultrasonic(US) combined with calcium peroxide(CaO₂), VSS reduction rate, solubilization rate, SCOD/VSS ratio, SCOD increasing rate, LB-EPS(Loosely-Bound EPS) and TB-EPS(Tightly-bound EPS) were measured. US was compared as a control. Solubilization rate increased by 23.4% under US and increased by 50.7% under US/CaO₂(0.05 g CaO₂/g VSS). and also, at the same conditions, VSS reduction rate increased by 7.1% and 17.7%, respectively. SCOD increasing rate from 10 to 90 minutes was 0.0151 min^-1 under US/CaO₂(0.02 g CaO₂/g VSS). TB-EPS decreased by 36.4% under US and decreased by 59.0% under US/CaO₂(0.05 g CaO₂/g VSS). TB-EPS decreased during first 10 minutes and then decreased slowly until 90 minutes. There was no significant difference in TB-EPS decrease according to the dosage of calcium peroxide.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.551-558
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• 2007

From the view point of biological wastewater treatment, C/N ratio is one of the most important factor in biological nutrient removal process. However, municipal sewage in Korea is characterized by extremely low content of carbon source and relatively higher portion of N source. Accordingly, it is necessary to dose external carbon source in order to obtain higher degree of carbon source within the process. In this study, the effects of pH pretreatment as an alternative plan for increasing carbon source on the cell disruption and COD solubility of waste activated sludge were conducted under well defined experimental conditions. During 5 hours, the value of COD solubilization rate ($S_R$) at pH 11.5 is approximately 4.4 times higher than the value of $S_R$ at pH 9.5. It is expected that the level of SCOD increased due to the result from cell disruption. However, VSS/TSS ratio was not significantly changed after 5 hours. As Alkalinity changes gradually from less than 15, 30 and 60 meq NaOH/L, average RBCOD/SCOD fraction showed 34, 36 and 45%,respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.90-96
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• 2008

In order to meet the stringent requirement of sludge disposal and to find ecological alternative, aerobic digestion coupled with alkaline pretreatment was studied. The treated sludge was tested for the potential of liquid fertilizer. In the aerobic digestion, it was obvious that the performance of digester B(fed with the sludge pretreated by NaOH) was better than that of digester A(fed with raw sludge) in terms of COD and SS removal. SS and VSS removal rates in digester B were 66% and 69%, respectively. At 5 days, TSS removal rate reached 47% in the digester B, which was 71% of final TSS removal rate. It revealed that the pretreatment process can shorten the retention time of aerobic digestion. 94.1% of TCOD in the raw sludge was reduced by alkaline pretreatment and aerobic digestion. Final SCOD was in the range of 220$\sim$230 mg/L implying the sludge was stabilized. Nitrification and pH drop were observed in the aerobic digestion. Final nitrate concentrations in digester A and B were 445.4 and 223.1 mg/L and final pH in digester B was 3.0. Biological assays reported that leaf size of cucumber seedling increased with nitrate concentration and sludge to soil ratio. The sludge treated by alkaline and aerobic digestion promoted the growth of seedling leaf and stem remarkably compared to raw sludge. In contrast, the aerobically digested sludge without pretreatment improved leaf growth and inhibited stem growth.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.815-824
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• 2011

In this study, a non-thermal plasma system was employed to simultaneously remove odorous compounds and organic sludge. The system consisted of two reactors; the first one was the non-thermal plasma reactor where ozone was produced by the plasma reaction and the ozone oxidized hydrogen sulfide, the model odorous compound, and then the ozone-laden gas stream was introduced to the second reactor where wasted sludge was disintegrated and solubilized by ozone oxidation. In this study, the gas retention time (GRT) and the hydraulic retention time (HRT) were changed in the two-reactor system, and the effects of GRT and HRT on reduction efficiencies of odor and sludge were determined. As the GRT increased, the ozone concentration increased resulting in an increasing efficiency of hydrogen sulfide removal. However, the overall ozone loading rate to the second sludge reactor was the same at any GRT, which resulted in an insignificant change in sludge reduction rate. When HRTs in the sludge reactor were 1, 2, 4 hours, the sludge reduction rates were approximately 30% during the four-hour operation, while the rate increased to 70% at the HRT of 6 hours. Nevertheless, at HRTs greater than 4 hours, the solubilization efficiency was not proportionally increased with increasing specific input energy, indicating that an appropriate sludge retention time needs to be applied to achieve effective solubilization efficiencies at a minimal power consumption for the non-thermal plasma reaction.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.51-59
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• 2015

Livestock sludge contains high concentration of organic matter and some heavy metals. In case of discharging into the sea, it might have negative effects in the environment. In this study thermal hydrolysis reaction was applied for livestock sludge to determine the fuelization possibility and obtain the best operation conditions. Livestock sludges were thermally hydrolyzed at temperature range $170{\sim}210^{\circ}C$ in sealed high-temperature reactors. Liquid products and dewatered cakes were analyzed. The operation at $190^{\circ}C$ was found to be best effective condition. High heating value and low heating value were 5,050 kcal/kg and 4,740 kcal/kg, respectively. Therefore, fuelization of livestock sludge using thermal hydrolysis reactor is found to be highly effective.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.93-97
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• 2004

We investigate the effect of enzyme pretreatment using protease, carbohydrase, and lipase on improvement of sludge treatment efficiency by measuring SCOD and TCOD. The enzyme-pretreatment increases SCOD of excess sludge. In addition, the amount of sludge reduction during digestion, in terms of SCOD and TCOD, are enhanced by enzyme-pretreatment. Among pretense, carbohydrase, and lipase, pretense showed the best enhancement of the sludge treatment efficiency. Sludge digestion followed by ozone and enzyme treatments showed more effective sludge treatment when compared with ozone treatment alone. Therefore, we expect that enzyme pretreatment can be used as a useful tool for enhancing the sludge treatment efficiency.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.264-270
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• 2010

Waste activated sludge from sewage treatment plants mainly consisted of flocs of bacterial cell, and thus hard to be stabilized anaerobically due to rigid cell walls. One of the pretreatment methods to overcome this barrier is the venturi cavitation system (VCS) adopting hydrodynamic cavitation. This research was conducted to investigate the effects of the pretreatment of waste activated sludge by VCS on the anaerobic digestibility. Depending on the pretreatment period with the VCS, methane production, COD removal and VS removal efficiency increased 41%~45%, 36.5%~43.1% and 18.4~24.1%, respectively, compared to the control case. The increase in methane production from digester was 3.3~4.2 times higher than the theoretical methane potential of the increased SCOD after the VCS pre-treatment. This suggests that the VCS pre-treatment not only increases SCOD but also improves the digestibility of solid fractions. The energy mass balance indicated that the energy consumed for sludge pre-treatment could be recovered by the increased methane production after pre-treatment, suggesting the high potential for field application.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.567-573
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• 2003

The pretreatment process was carried out to solubilize the sewage sludge for enhancing its biodegradability using alkaline treatment, ultrasonic treatment(15kHz), ozone treatment and different combination of these three methods: alkaline followed by ultrasonic as well as ozone, and ultrasonic followed by alkaline. The solubilization efficiency was evaluated based on the SCOD/TCOD ratio and VSS/TS ratio. In results, the proper condition of alkaline treatment was shown as 30meq/l of NaOH, pH 12 and 3hours of reaction time. Solubilization efficiency increased to 17% from initial 2% based on SCOD/TCOD ratio under this condition. In ultrasonic treatment, the higher ultrasonic power, the longer treatment time and the lower sludge volume resulted in higher solubilization respectively. There was a rapid increase in solubilization efficiency after 20 minute, then it was measured as 32% of SCOD/TCOD ratio in 1 hour at a ultrasonic power of 1,300W with 1/sludge. Solubilization efficiencies in combined treatment using alkaline and ultrasonic were 47-53% higher than single treatment at a sonicated time of 1 hour. Ozone treatment followed by alkaline treatment also represented the enhanced solubilization compared to ozone treatment. Therefore, ultrasonic or ozone treatment assisted by alkaline could achieve the short treatment time as well as high solubilizetion efficiency.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.257-262
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• 2017

Several disposal processes for waste sludge from wastewater treatment plants such as landfill, ocean dump, incineration, reuse as fuels or fertilizers are practiced. However, ocean dumping is prohibited by international treat. New constructions of landfill sites or incineration facilities are limited by NIMBY and reuse processes are still suffering from low energy yield. Therefore, development of alternative processes for sludge disposal are currently needed. In this study, alternative technique for sludge solubilization using HVI (high voltage impulse) was suggested and verified experimentally. Sludge solubilization was carried out for 90 minutes using HVI discharge with peak voltage of 16 kV and pulse duration for 40 microsecond. About 3~9 % of MLSS and MLVSS concentration were reduced, but the soluble COD, TN, TP of the sludge increased to 372 %, 56 % and 102 % respectively. It indicates that the flocs and/or cells of the sludge were damaged by HVI. These resulted in flocs-disintegration and cells-lysis, which means the internal matters were bursted out of the flocs as well as the cells. Thus, electrical conductivity in bulk solution was increased. All of the results verified that the HVI could be used as an alternative technique for sludge solubilization processes.