• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2011

This work experimentally determined the effect of thermal and microwave pretreatments on the anaerobic digestion of mixtures of municipal primary and secondary sludges in semi-continuous mesophilic digesters at hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 20, 15, 10, 7, and 5 days. The ratio of soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) to total COD in thermally pretreated and microwaved sludges at $80^{\circ}C$ was 2.7 and 3.2 times higher than that of raw sludge, respectively. The volatile solids (VS) and COD removal efficiencies in all three digesters fed with raw (control), thermally pretreated (TM), and microwaved (MW) sludges decreased as the HRT was reduced. The highest relative improvement in VS removal compared to the control occurred at the HRT of 5 days in the TM and MW (29 and 41% higher than the control, respectively). At this HRT, improvement in the COD removal efficiencies in the TM and MW compared to the control was 28 and 53%, respectively. Improvements in biogas production compared with the control increased in both the TM and MW as the HRT was reduced to 5 days. The relative improvement in daily biogas production compared to the control from the TM and MW was 33 and 53% higher than the control at the HRT of 5 days, respectively. The results show that microwave pretreatment is more effective than thermal pretreatment in increasing the solubilization degree and mesophilic anaerobic biodegradability of sewage sludge.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.339-346
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• 2002

Physico-chemical properties of the activated sludges(Suyoung and Changlim treatment plant), such as SVI(sludge volume index), absorbance, specific surface area, and specific resistance using Buchener funnel test were investigated with changing anaerobic storage time. This experimental condition was found that it was possible to estimate a linear relationship between their parameters such as specific surface area specific resistance, and sludge volume index(SVI). The specific surface area and the specific resistance to filtration of the activated sludges of Suyoung and Changlim treatment plant were found as 123.6~136.6$m^2$/gDS and 41.5~44.9$m^2$/gDS(dry solid), and 1.09$\times$10$^{14}$ ~5.48$\times$10$_{14}$ m/kg and 1.05$\times$10$^{14}$ ~2.48$\times$10$^{14}$ m/kg, respectively. The results gave a good linear relationship between the specific surface area and the specific resistance, r=2.25$\times$10$^{12}$ s-8.10$\times$10$^{13}$ ($R^2$=0.8885) at Suyoung treatment plant and r=1.26$\times$10$^{13}$ s-4.75$\times$10$^{14}$ ($R^2$=0.8756) at Changlim treatment plant.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 1997

The treatment performances of anaerobic-aerobic activated sludge process were investigated under various operation conditions. The treatment system proposed in this study gave a relatively stable performance against hourly change of the flow rate and showed a satisfactory removal efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds under experimental conditions. The average removal efficiency of total nitrogen gradually decreased as the influent total nitrogen concentration was increased. High C/N ratio of the wastewater was required for the complete removal of nitrogen. Glucose as a carbon source was more efficient than starch and the removal ability for all components become higher with the increase of the fraction of glucose.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.335-339
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• 2002

Laboratory experiments were conducted using pure cultures of Acinetobacter under an-aerobic/aerobic cyclic conditions to explain the release and uptake of soluble phosphate in an activated sludge process showing enhanced biological phosphate removal (EBPR). Under anaerobic/aerobic cyclic conditions in a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR), COD uptake concurrent with soluble phosphate release by Acinetobacter was not significant during the anaerobic periods, indicating that EBPR would not be established in pure cultures. However Acinetobacter cells accumulated higher phosphate content (5.2%) in SBR than that obtained (4.3%) from batch experiments. These results suggest that Acinetobacter sp. may not follow the proposed pattern of behavior of poly-P bacteria in EBPR activated sludge Plants.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.128-136
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• 2016

BACKGROUND: Hydrothermal carbonization reaction is the thermo-chemical energy conversion technology for producing the solid fuel of high carbon density from organic wastes. The hydrothermal carbonization reaction is accompanied by the thermal hydrolysis reaction which converse particulate organic matters to soluble forms (hydro-thermal hydrolysate). Recently, hydrothermal carbonization is adopted as a pre-treatment technology to improve anaerobic digestion efficiency. This research was carried out to assess the effects of hydro-thermal reaction temperature on the methane potential and anaerobic biodegradability in the thermal hydrolysate of organic sludge generating from the wastewater treatment plant of poultry slaughterhouse .METHODS AND RESULTS: Wastewater treatment sludge cake of poultry slaughterhouse was treated in the different hydro-thermal reaction temperature of 170, 180, 190, 200, and 220℃. Theoretical and experimental methane potential for each hydro-thermal hydrolysate were measured. Then, the organic substance fractions of hydro-thermal hydrolysate were characterized by the optimization of the parallel first order kinetics model. The increase of hydro-thermal reaction temperature from 170℃ to 220℃ caused the enhancement of hydrolysis efficiency. And the methane potential showed the maximum value of 0.381 Nm³ kg^-1-VS_added in the hydro-thermal reaction temperature of 190℃. Biodegradable volatile solid(VSB) content have accounted for 66.41% in 170℃, 72.70% in 180℃, 79.78% in 190℃, 67.05% in 200℃, and 70.31% in 220℃, respectively. The persistent VS content increased with hydro-thermal reaction temperature, which occupied 0.18% for 170℃, 2.96% for 180℃, 6.32% for 190℃, 17.52% for 200℃, and 20.55% for 220℃.CONCLUSION: Biodegradable volatile solid showed the highest amount in the hydro-thermal reaction temperature of 190℃, and then, the optimum hydro-thermal reaction temperature for organic sludge was assessed as 190℃ in the aspect of the methane production. The rise of hydro-thermal reaction temperature caused increase of persistent organic matter content.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.99-106
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of novel process with thermal hydrolysis and separation as pre-treatment of anaerobic digestion (AD). The dewatered sludge was pre-treated using THP, and then separated. The separated liquid used as substrate for AD and separated solid was returned on THP(Thermal Hydrolysis Process). The degree of disintegration (DD, based on COD) using only THP found 45.1-49.3%. The DD using THP+separation found 76.1-77.6%, which was higher than only THP. As result from dual-pool two-step model, the ratio of rapidly degradable substrate to total degradable substrate found 0.891-0.911 in separated liquid, which was higher than only THP. However, the rapidly degradable substrate reaction constant (kF) of only THP and THP+separation were similar. This results found that dewatered sludge was disintegrated by THP, and then rapidly degradable substrate of hydrolyzed sludge was sorted by separation.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 1997

Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge by the anaerobic sequencing batch reactor(ASBR) was investigated to evaluate the performance of the ASBR process at a critical condition of high-solids-content feed. The reactors were operated at an HRT of 10 days with an equivalent loading rate of 0.8-1.5 gVS/L/d at $35^{\circ}C.$ The main conclusions drawn from this study were as follows: 1. Digestion of a municipal wastewater sludge was possible using the ASBR in spite of high concentration of settleable solids in the sludge. The ASBRS with 3- and 4-day cycle period showed almost identical high digestion performances. 2. No adverse effect on digestion stability was observed in the ASBRS in spite of withdrawal and replenishment of $30\%\;or\;40\%$ of liquid contents. A conventional anaerobic digester could be easily converted to the ASBR without any stability problem. 3. Flotation thickening occurred in thicken step of the ASBRS throughout steady state, and floating bed volume at the end of thicken period occupied about $70\%$ of the working volume of the reactor. Efficiency of flotation thickening in the ASBRS could be comparable to that of additional gravity thickening of a completely mixed digester. 4. Solids were accumulated rapidly in the ASBR during start-up period. Solids concentrations in the ASBRS were 2.6 times higher than that in the completely mixed control reactor at steady state. Dehydrogenase activity had a strong correlation with the solids concentration. Dehydrogenase activity of the digested sludge in the ASBR was 2.9 times higher than that of the sludge in the control reactor, and about 25 times higher than that of the subnatant in the ASBR. 5. Remarkable increase in equivalent gas production of $52\%$ was observed at the ASBRS compared with the control reactor in spite of similar Quality of clarified effluent from the ASBRS and control reactor. The increase in gas production from the ASBRS was believed to be combined results of accumulation of microorganisms, higher driving force applied, and additional long-term degradation of organics continuously accumulated.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2022

Studies for improving the efficiency of the traditional anaerobic digestion process are being actively conducted. To improve anaerobic digestion efficiency, this study tried to derive the optimal pretreatment conditions and mixing conditions by integrating the heat solubilization pretreatment of sewage sludge, livestock manure, and food waste. The soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) increase rate of sewage sludge before and after heat solubilization pretreatment showed an increased rate of 224.7% compared to the control group at 170℃ and 25 min and showed the most stable increase rate. As a result of the biomethane potential test of sewage sludge before and after heat solubilization pretreatment, the total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) and SCOD removal rates increased as the heat solubilization temperature increased, but did not increase further at temperatures above 170℃. In the case of methane generation, there was no significant change in the cumulative methane generation from 0.134 to 0.203 Sm³-CH₄/kg-COD at 170℃ for 15 min. As a result of the integrated digestion of organic waste, the experimental condition in which 25% of the sewage sludge, 50% of the food waste, and 25% of the livestock manure were mixed showed the highest methane production of 0.3015 m³-CH₄/kg-COD, confirming that it was the optimal mixing ratio condition. In addition, under experimental conditions mixed with all three substrates, M4 conditions mixed with 25% sewage sludge, 50% food waste, and 25% livestock manure showed the highest methane generation at 0.2692 Sm³-CH₄/kg-COD.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.135-142
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• 2014

The performance of inorganic sludge separation system is evaluated. Anaerobic digester effluent sludge is used for feed sludge of this system and hydrocyclone is used for inorganic sludge separation. For phosphorus removal and recovery $MgCl_2$ is pumped into MAP growth tank, a component of inorganic sludge separation system. Using this system inorganic sludge which contained less than 40 % of organic matter can be discharged stably and the maximum amount of separated inorganic sludge is 13.4 % of influent sludge based on dry solid. The amount of phosphorus recovered as MAP(as P) is 16.7 % to influent T-P.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.183-189
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• 2004

The performance of a membrane-coupled anaerobic fermenter system for the recovery of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from liquid organic sludge was experimentally investigated. Permeation flux was stably kept around $0.2(m^3/m^2/day)$ during operational period. The membrane-coupled fermenter showed 2.2 times higher VFAs concentration and higher VFAs forming rate than those of fermenter without membrane. The fermenter with membrane proved to be an effective system for the recovery of soluble organic materials from liquid sludge.