• 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.26 no.6
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• pp.897-905
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• 2012

Based on the activated sludge model, a simple aerobic digestion model which represents the aerobic sludge digestion by sequencing batch reactor(SBR) equipped with ultrasonicator was composed and performed in this study. The results are as follows. Aerobic digestion efficiency can be increased by adopting ultrasonic pretreatment. For the 5 days of SRT, 24 % of particulate component is predicted to be removed by ultrasonic pretreatment and aerobic digestion. This is 7 %p higher than that of conventional aerobic digestion. A Hybrid SBR aerobic digestion combined with ultrasonication shows higher digestion efficiency than aerobic digestion and ultrasonic pretreatment system. In case of this hybrid system, the digestion efficiency was predicted up to 49 % when the ultrasonication was performed every 2 hours, repeatedly. However, excessive treatment like every hours of ultrasonication in an aerobic digestion process results in adverse effect on TCOD removal because biomass disintegrated completely and the solubilized COD can not be used for the biomass synthesis again.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.58-63
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• 2009

This study investigated improvement to sludge dewaterability and coagulation for sewage treatment plant sludge by using sodium hypochlorite solution (NaOCl), ferric sulfate [$Fe_2(SO_4)_3$] and zeolite. The specific resistance to filtration(SRF), chloride, pH and turbidity were used to evaluate the sludge dewatering behaviors. The results of study were as follows: By varying the amount of NaOCl added the optimum result in terms of enhancement for pretreatment occurred when 34 mg/l of NaOCl was injected. When the total solids concentration of the sludge was 10,000 mg/l, the optimum ferric sulfate dosage for the sludge dewaterability was 150 mg/l and the corresponding SRF was $1.7{\times}10^7sec^2/g$. It was observed that injecting zeolite into sludge was effective in improving the dewaterability of sludge.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.505-510
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• 2008

Excess sludge and raw sludge were treated by ball mill in order to promote solubilization, and it was known that the level of solubilization was higher in excess sludge rather than raw sludge. About solid concentration, with the increase of TS, the amounts of solubilization was increased. And excess sludge was solubilized more effectively with the increase of ball mill treatment time. Especially, in case of excess sludge, within 5 min of ball mill treatment, 6 times of solubilization was achieved compared with raw sludge. The effect of bead size was also tested and 1 mm bead was most desirable when applied to the TS 4% of excess sludge. Particle size decrease by the ball mill treatment was more effective in raw sludge, nevertheless the level of solubilization was always higher in excess sludge. This means that the results of particle analysis could not be understood as a indicator for sludge solubilization. Generally, excess sludge and raw sludge are mixed at the thicker in the STP, but considering a ball mill pretreatment as an alternative for sludge solubilization, it is desirable to treat not raw sludge but excess sludge alone in the aspect of solubilization yield and economical process.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.71-81
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• 2005

Anaerobic digestion is employed worldwide as the oldest and most important process for sludge stabilization. An additional advantage is the production of methane during anaerobic digestion. However, the waste activated sludge(WAS) has poor anaerobic degradability and less gas production due to the cell wall of bio-solid. In order to improve and enhance stabilization and dewatering of the WAS, a number of pretreatment processes have been developed and investigated. In this research, a pilot-scale study of pulse power pretreatment was performed to improve anaerobic degradability and dewaterability of the WAS. A pilot plant was designed and operated based on a previous laboratory study. Change of the sludge characteristics by pulse power pretreatment was estimated to assess the increasing soluble organics. The increased soluble organics could be used as a good substrate in the anaerobic digesion process. Gas production and methane potential of the anaerobic digestion were estimated as the parameters of anaerobic degradability. For evaluation of the dewaterability of pretreated WAS, capillary suction time(CST) and specific resistance were measured. The efficiency of energy recovery was also estimated by calculating energy balance.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.15-21
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• 2014

In this study, biochemical methane potential test was conducted to estimate ultimate methane and carbon dioxide yield for anaerobic digestion and pretreatment with sewage sludge cake. Two of 0.2 % TS of sewage sludge cakes were treated with 5M NaOH or sonication of 0.51 W/mL during 30 min respectively. Another sample was treated simultaneously with NaOH and sonication in same condition. Then, initial soluble COD increased from 33.1 mg/L to 494 mg/L. After BMP test, methane production ranged from 3.12 and 84.2 mL $CH_4$ per g of Volatile Solid (VS) and 9.2 and 13.5 mL $CO_2$ per g of Volatile Solid (VS) for carbon dioxide. In other tests, injection of nutrient media or sludge supernatant produced 73.1 and 73.8 mL $CH_4$ per g of Volatile Solid (VS) and 11.2 and 13.6 mL $CO_2$ per g of Volatile Solid (VS) respectively. When BMP test finished, 62 % of initial volatile solids decreased to 33.8~45.4 %. Simultaneous pretreatment increased soluble COD, reduction rate of volatile solids and digestion efficiency than those for alkaline and ultrasonic pretreatment.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.580-586
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• 2010

Acid and alkali pretreatments were applied to tofu processing waste (TPW) to increase the solubility of ingredients in TPW. Pretreatment at 1.0% of HCl and 2.5% of NaOH condition resulted in the increase of SCOD concentration from 3.2 g COD/L to 27 g COD/L and 33 g COD/L, respectively. The acid and alkali-pretreated TPW was studied for its fermentative $H_2$ production capacity in batch mode using a thermophillic mixed culture. Alkali pretreatment on presence of 2.5% NaOH exhibited more soluble portion released compared to acid pretreatment using HCl, however the $H_2$ production from acid pretreated TPW was better than alkali-pretreated TPW probably due to the sodium inhibition on microbial activity. In addition, sewage sludge was externally added to the acid-pretreated (1.0% HCl) TPW by 20% (on volume basis). Average H2 production rate was increased from 31 to 78 ml/L-broth/hr, and it was attributed to the high buffer capacity and abundant nutrients especially divalent cation in sewage sludge.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.662-669
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• 2019

Anaerobic digestion is a popular sewage sludge (Ss) treatment method as it provides significant pollution control and energy recovery. However, the low C/N ratio and poor biodegradability of Ss necessitate pretreatment methods that improve solubilization under anaerobic conditions in addition to anaerobic co-digestion with other substrates to improve the process efficiency. In this study, three pretreatment methods, namely microwave irradiation, ultrasonication, and heat treatment, were investigated, and the corresponding improvement in methane production was assessed. Additionally, the simplex centroid design method was utilized to determine the optimum mixture ratio of food waste (Fw), livestock manure (Lm), and Ss for maximum methane yield. Microwave irradiation at 700 W for 6 min yielded the highest biodegradability (62.0%), solubilization efficiency (59.7%), and methane production (329 mL/g VS). The optimum mixture ratio following pretreatment was 61.3% pretreated Ss, 28.6% Fw, and 10.1% Lm. The optimum mixture ratio without pretreatment was 33.6% un-pretreated Ss, 46.0% Fw, and 20.4% Lm. These results indicate that the choice of pretreatment method plays an important role in efficient anaerobic digestion and can be applied in operational plants to enhance methane production. Co-digestion of Ss with Fw and Lm was also beneficial.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.84-89
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• 2011

In this study, individual(alkaline, ultrasonic) and combined(alkaline+ultrasonic) pretreatment effect on sewage sludge solubilization was investigated. COD solubilization rates increased with the dose of NaOH added: solubilization reached 27.6%. Additional alkaline agents did not increase solubilization further. Ultrasonic pretreatment achieved 33~39% solubilization when 140 W/L amplitude. In(alkaline(pre-treatment)+ultrasonic (after-treatment)) treatment, solubilization increased as the combined intensity in creased($70.4{\pm}9.4%$). SCOD rising rate(0.076) was achieved.