• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2014

This study was performed with electrolysis treatment method for improving anaerobic digestion gas production efficiency in a sewage sludge, thereby confirmed in anaerobic digestion production and denitrification effect. As a result, solubilization was increased by increasing treatment time of electrolysis and current density, also showed to be 9.02% with 10 mA/cm2 of current density in 4 mm electrode distance. Based on the results of BMP test used the above experiment, methane production was 0.49 L CH4/g VS, and increased by 88.4% compared with control groups. As for the results of denitrification using the sewage sludge treated with the same conditions, denitrification rate appeared $19.2mg\;NO_3{^{-}}N/g\;MLVSS{\cdot}hr$, and through the sewage sludge treated with electrolysis, it can be applied to anaerobic digestion and denitrification process by increasing biodegradation.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.83-89
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• 2014

The effects of initial solid concentration and microwave irradiation (MWI) time on the hydrolysis of waste activated sludge (WAS) were investigated. MWI time strongly influenced WAS hydrolysis for all initial solid concentrations of 8.20, 31.51, and 52.88 g VSS/L. For all WAS, the volatile suspended solids (VSS) solubilization degree ranged from 35.6% to 38.4% during a total MWI time of 10 min. Soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) concentration increased at a rate proportional to the decrease of VSS during the MWI. However, the clearly different VSS solubilization patterns that were observed during the MWI were explained by the 2-step hydrolysis of WAS, consisting of the initial disintegration of the easily degradable part of the sludge, followed by the subsequent disintegration of the hardly degradable part of the sludge. WAS hydrolysis rates for 3 to 6 min of MWI were significantly lower than those for less than 3 min, or more than 6 min. From these results, 3 min MWI time and WAS of 31.51 g VSS/L (centrifugal thickener WAS) showed the most efficient hydrolysis of WAS at 36.0%. The profiles of total nitrogen (T-N) concentrations corresponded well to the SCOD increases in terms of the empirical formula of bacterial cell mass ($C_5H_7O_2N$). The negligible T-N increase and pH decrease during WAS hydrolysis by MWI will allow the application of this process to subsequent biological processes, such as anaerobic digestion.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.611-616
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• 2011

The impacts of ultrasonic pretreatment on the biodegradability of domestic sewage sludge were evaluated through a series of anaerobic digestion experiments in batch system. The gas and methane production from the sludge samples pretreated by an ultrasonic tool with different durations were measured with time. Although the biogas production increased with the extent of sludge solubilization and the period of ultrasonic pretreatment, the enhancement of sludge biodegradability was much more sensitive to the pretreatment for the relatively short periods. Most of the enhanced biodegradability by the pretreatment was appeared in the early stage of anaerobic digestion, less than 6 days. The maximum biogas production per day was observed between 4 to 6 days when the sludge was pretreated less than 10 minutes while it was obtained in the beginning for the sludge pretreated longer periods. The results suggest that the repeated alternation of low strength ultrasonic pretreatment and anaerobic digestion may be more effective than the combination of one time pretreatment for a relatively long period and following anaerobic digestion.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.90-95
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• 2009

Sludge pre-treatment utilizing cavitation is one of the commercialized methods at present. Cavitation can be generated by two different methods, sonotrode and hydrodynamic principle, and there has been no direct comparison between the two methods. In this study, solubilization efficiency, changes in sludge size distribution, and the methane production potential after pre-treatment by the two methods were compared. The maximum solubilization efficiency per unit energy input with the two methods was similar, and was 302 mg ${\Delta}SCOD/g$ TS at the energy input of 0.18 kWh/L. Break-up of sludge flocs were dominant during the early period of pre-treatment, while cell disintegration continued through the pre-treatment with the increase in the number of particles with less than 1 ${\mu}m$. BMP test results indicated that the methane potential increased up to 24.3% without differences between the two pre-treatments, and the increase in methane potential did not proportional to energy input. Although the energy efficiency of the two methods was quite similar, hydrodynamic methods might be a better choice for field application considering the operation and maintenance cost, and its potential improvement in energy efficiency.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.128-131
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• 2003

The effect of microwave irradiation on waste activated sludge was investigated in order to improve solubilization. a different levels of microwave irradiation time were varied within a range from 1 min to 15 min. When WAS was pretreated at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 15 min, the SCOD concentration increased according to microwave irradiation time. A simple batch procedure was used to measure the VFA potential, i.e. the amount of VFA that can be formed through digestion of organic constituent in sludge. At equilibrium point, TVFA in the case of 1, 3, 5, 7 and 15 min microwaved sludges was 8%, 122%, 243%, 279% and 232% higher than that in the case of raw sludge, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1119-1125
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• 2010

Most of the sludge pre-treatment methods to improve the anaerobic digestibility of sludge are not practied in the fields with low economical efficiency. The venturi cavitation system (VCS) adopting hydrodynamic cavitation is simple and requires low energy. This research was conducted to investigate the optimum design and operating conditions of the VCS. The experimental results indicated that the optimum number of venturi in series was three, and the suction mode operation of the pump yielded 1.6 times higher pre-treatment efficiency per unit energy consumption than the discharge mode. The combination of venturies with different throat sizes did not affect the pre-treatment efficiency. Also, the parallel installation of the three in series venture unit yielded 30% higher pre-treatment efficiency per unit energy consumption than the single unit. Under parallel conditions, the solubilization efficiency was 5.6 mg ${\Delta}SCOD/g$ TS/kWh, which is higher than the previously reported value.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.202.2-202
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• 2005

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2013

A combined process consisted of a biofilm reactor and a continuously stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) was investigated for highly loaded ammonium wastewater treatment via nitrite accumulation. To enhance ammonium oxidizing bacteria over nitrite oxidizing bacteria on the surface of carriers, the biofilm reactor was operated at temperature of $35^{\circ}C$ for more than three months but the influent ammonium (500 mg-N/L) was partially oxidized to nitrite (240 mg-N/L). As pH was increased from 7.5 to 8.0, nitrite accumulation was fully achieved due to the inhibition of nitrite oxidizing bacteria under high free ammonia concentration. The biofilm reactor performance was severely deteriorated at the hydraulic retention time of 12 hr, at which incomplete nitrification of ammonia was observed. Various solubilization methods were applied to sewage sludge for enhancing its biodegradability and the combined method, alkaline followed by ultrasonic, gave the highest solubilization efficiency (58%); the solubilized solution was used as the external carbon source for denitrification reaction in CSTR. FISH analysis showed that the dominant microorganisms on the carriers were ammonium oxidizing bacteria such as Nitrosomonas spp. and Nitrospirar spp. but low amounts of nitrite oxidizing bacteria as Nitrobacter spp. was also detected.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.200-207
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• 2017

A new approach to the solubilization of waste activated sludge (WAS) using alginate-quaternary ammonium complex beads was investigated under controlled mild alkaline conditions. The complex beads were prepared by the reaction of sodium alginate (SA) with 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl-octadecyldimethylammonium chloride (TSA) in acid solution, followed by crosslinking with $CaCl_2$. Treatment of WAS with SA-TSA complex beads was effective for enhancing the efficacy of WAS solubilization. The highest value of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) concentration (3,900 mg/L) was achieved after 10 days of treatment with 30% (v/v) SA-TSA complex beads. The WAS solubilization efficacy of the complex beads was also evaluated by estimating the concentrations of volatile fatty acids (VFAs). The maximum value of VFAs was 2,961 mg/L, and the overall proportions of VFAs were more than 75% of SCOD. The main components of VFAs were acetic, propionic, iso-butyric, and butyric acids. These results suggest that SA-TSA complex beads might be useful for enhancing the solubilization of WAS. The potential use of VFAs as the external carbon substrate for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) by a mixed microbial culture (MMC) was also examined. The enrichment of PHA-accumulating MMC could be achieved by periodic feeding of VFAs generated from WAS in a sequencing batch reactor. The composition of PHA synthesized from VFAs mainly consisted of 3-hydroxybutyrate. The maximum PHA content accounted for 25.9% of dry cell weight. PHA production by this process is considered to be promising since it has a doubly beneficial effect on the environment by reducing the amount of WAS and concomitantly producing an eco-friendly biopolymer.

• 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.