Enhancing volatile fatty acids production from waste activated sludge by a novel cation-exchange resin assistant strategy

This study developed a novel strategy for enhancing volatile fatty acids production from waste activated sludge by cation-exchange resin assistant anaerobic fermentation. The process condition was optimized by response surface methodology. Considerable sludge disintegration degree (40.9%) and volatile fatty acids yield (4619.6 mg COD/L) were achievable at the proposed process conditions, i.e. cation-exchange resin dosage = 2.05 and 1.78 g/g SS, fermentation time = 4.97 and 6.46 d, and stirring strength = 246.9 and 261.2 rpm, respectively. Grey relational analysis revealed that cation-exchange resin dosage, fermentation time, and stirring strength presented similarly significant effects on sludge disintegration. The reusability tests showed that NaCl solution had the best effect on cation-exchange resin regeneration, and the performance of regenerated resin was comparable with the original resin on volatile fatty acids production. Compared with conventional pretreatment methods, the proposed cation-exchange resin assistant strategy revealed obvious advantages of saved pretreatment agents, easy operation, none chemical residual in sludge and small footprint. Total volatile fatty acids recovery can reach 1.46 × 108 tons chemical oxygen demand annually in terms of China's context, which could offset one third of carbon gap in China's wastewater treatment plants. The proposed cation-exchange resin assistant strategy indeed sheds lights on the direction for WAS treatment in a close alignment with process viability and engineering feasibility.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China e China (No.51778179) and Research and Development Program in Key Areas of Guangdong Province (2019B110209002)

An innovative alkaline protease-based pretreatment approach for enhanced short-chain fatty acids production via a short-term anaerobic fermentation of waste activated sludge

This study reported a novel pretreatment approach with combination of alkaline protease (AP) and pH 10 for enhancing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production from waste activated sludge (WAS). Through the AP-based pretreatment, WAS flocs were disintegrated with cell lysis, leading to release of biodegradable organic matters. At the external AP dosage of 5%, SCOD of 5363.7 mg/L (SCOD/TCOD = 32.5%) was achievable after 2-h pretreatment. More than 66% of SCOD was composed of proteins and carbohydrates. Considerable SCFAs of 607 mg COD/g VSS was produced over a short-term anaerobic fermentation of 3 days, which was 5.4 times higher than that in the control. Acetic and propionic acids accounted for 74.1% of the SCFAs. The AP-based approach increased endogenous protease and ?-glucosidase activities, facilitating biodegradation of dissolved organic matters and SCFAs production. Such approach is promising for WAS disposal and carbon recovery, the produced SCFAs might supply 60% of carbon gap in wastewater

Breakage–reflocculation implemented by two-stage shear for enhancing waste-activated sludge dewaterability: Effects of shear condition and extracellular polymeric substances

<p>The conditioning of waste-activated sludge (WAS) before dewatering is crucial for enhancing sludge dewaterability. The breakage–reflocculation that was implemented by two-stage shear (drastic first-stage shear for breakage and moderate second-stage shear for reflocculation utilizing the bioflocculation function) which was proposed as a novel WAS conditioning method with several advantages (simple operation, lower cost, and none added reagent) compared to traditional methods. Effects of the shear condition and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on breakage–reflocculation were orderly investigated. Two equations were developed by response surface methodology for predicting breakage–reflocculation conditioning performance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that individual effects of first-stage shear rate (<i>G</i>₁), second-stage shear rate (<i>G</i>₂), second-stage shear time (<i>t</i>₂), and interactive effect of <i>G</i>₁<i>G</i>₂ were significant. More compact WAS flocs with better dewaterability and larger floc size formed through breakage–reflocculation. This was reflected in that the capillary suction time decreased by 16.9% and mean floc size increased by 24% under the optimum shear condition. In addition, the loosely bound EPS was revealed to be closely negatively correlated with breakage–reflocculation conditioning performance, indicating its adverse role in breakage–reflocculation. The breakage–reflocculation could be used as an independent conditioning method with low cost or a part of combined method.</p