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This study evaluates the effects of thermal hydrolysis (TH) pretreatment on anaerobic digestion (AD), through results obtained by biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests under mesophilic conditions (35 °C). Thickened sludge from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was thermally treated under two different temperatures (150 and 170 °C) and reaction times (30 and 60 min). Results show a significant increase in soluble COD, compared with the untreated sludge, when sludge was treated at 170 °C for 60 min. Moreover, the following BMP tests point out that TH pretreatment of sludge accelerated the AD rate and increased the biogas yield contributing to an increase in methane production, ranging between 17 and 24% compared with the raw sludge. Furthermore, the hydrolysis constant was estimated and methane production and degree of disintegration of the TH pretreated sludge were correlated, in order to deep the knowledge on the hydrolysis as the AD rate-limiting step. Further, the combined effects of TH pretreatment and AD on sludge show a reduction of total and volatile solids up to 19% and 24%, respectively.

Fenton is one of the advanced oxidation processes that can oxide organic compounds efficiently increasing the dewaterability of sludge. This study reports the optimisation of two reagents, Fe2+ and...

The present work aims to analyze the valorization of blood (Category 3 animal by-products). In this study, for the first time, blood serum water, obtained after a sterilization process and a solid/liquid separation unit, has been utilized as energy rich input material for anaerobic digestion. The performance of an up-flow anaerobic filter (UAF) for treating bovine blood serum water under mesophilic conditions was investigated. The reactor was loaded up to an organic loading rate of 2.5 kg m−3 d−1 of total COD, achieving total and soluble COD removal efficiencies of 90% and 92%, respectively. A maximum biogas yield of 0.56 m3 kg−1 of removed total COD was measured. According to the modified Stover-Kincannon kinetic model, maximum removal rate constant, Umax, and saturation value constant, KB, values were estimated as 18.8 g L−1 d−1 and 18.5 g L−1 d−1 for blood serum water, respectively. As the model gave high correlation coefficients (R2 = 97%), it could be used in both designing and predicting the behaviour of the UAF.

The present study addresses the coupling of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) with anaerobic digestion (AD) in wastewater treatment plants. The improvement in biomethane production due to the recycling back to the anaerobic digester of HTC liquor and hydrochar generated from digested sludge is investigated and proved. Mixtures of different compositions of HTC liquor and hydrochar, as well as individual substrates, were tested. The biomethane yield reached 102 ± 3 mL CH4 g−1 COD when the HTC liquor was cycled back to the AD and treated together with primary and secondary sludge. Thus, the biomethane production was almost doubled compared to that of the AD of primary and secondary sludge (55 ± 20 mL CH4 g−1 COD). The benefit is even more significant when both the HTC liquor and the hydrochar were fed to the AD of primary and secondary sludge. The biomethane yield increased up to 187 ± 18 mL CH4 g−1 COD when 45% of hydrochar, with respect to the total feedstock, was added. These results highlight the improvement that the HTC process can bring to AD, enhancing biomethane production and promoting a sustainable solution for the treatment of the HTC liquor and possibly the hydrochar itself.

Municipal sewage sludge was subjected to a hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process for developing a hydrochar with high adsorption capacity for water remediation in terms of dye removal. Three hydrochars were produced from municipal sewage sludge by performing HTC at 190, 220 and 250 &deg, C, with a 3 h reaction time. Moreover, a portion of each hydrochar was subjected to a post-treatment with KOH in order to increase the adsorption capacity. Physicochemical properties of sludge samples, raw hydrochars and KOH-modified hydrochars were measured and batch adsorption studies were performed using methylene blue (MB) as a reference dye. Data revealed that both raw and modified hydrochars reached good MB removal efficiency for solutions with low MB concentrations, on the contrary, MB in high concentration solutions was efficiently removed only by modified hydrochars. Interestingly, the KOH treatment greatly improved the MB adsorption rate, the modified hydrochars were capable of capturing above 95% of the initial MB amount in less than 15 min. The physicochemical characterization indicates that alkali modification caused a change in the hydrochar surface making it more chemically homogeneous, which is particularly evident for the 250 &deg, C hydrochar. Thus, the adsorption process can be regarded as a complex result of various phenomena, including physi- and chemi-sorption, acid&ndash, base and redox equilibria.

Several automatic strategies for aeration control have been investigated so far to favor a significant decrement of energy consumptions in biological processes in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Above all, the intermittent aeration process has demonstrated to have several advantages. This work reports the results of a case study made in a small municipal WWTP where an intermittent aeration control strategy based on the online measurement of real-time nitrogen forms has been implemented to optimize the nitrogen removal and the energy consumption in an activated process. High organic removal efficiency was achieved during the whole experimental period. Results indicated that nitrogen removal efficiency has been improved, especially during winter months, by the control strategy adopted that helped to determine the perfect length for the nitrification and denitrification phases. The intermittent aeration process increased the activity of the biomass, further selecting phosphate-accumulating bacteria and improving the growth of bacteria able to internally store carbon source. Excellent effects were achieved on energy and chemical consumption, with a reduction of about 15% and 23%, respectively. Finally, a 12% reduction of sludge production was also detected.

A laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) performing partial nitritation – anammox and denitrification was used to treat anaerobic digester effluents. The SBR cycle consisted of a short mixing filling phase followed by oxic and anoxic reaction phases. Working at 25 °C, an ammonium conversion efficiency of 96.5%, a total nitrogen removal efficiency of 88.6%, and an organic carbon removal efficiency of 63.5% were obtained at a nitrogen loading rate of 0.15 kg N m−3 d−1, and a biodegradable organic carbon to nitrogen ratio of 0.37. The potential contribution of each biological process was evaluated by using a stoichiometric model. The nitritation contribution decreased as the temperature decreased, while the contribution from anammox depended on the wastewater type and soluble carbon to nitrogen ratio. Denitrification improved the total nitrogen removal efficiency, and it was influenced by the biodegradable organic carbon to nitrogen ratio. The characteristic patterns of conductivity, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) and pH in the SBR cycle were well related to biological processes. Conductivity profiles were found to be directly related to the decreasing profiles of ammonium. Positive ORP values at the end of the anoxic phases were detected for total nitrogen removal efficiency of lower than 85%, and the occurrence of bending points on the ORP curves during the anoxic phases was associated with nitrite depletion by the anammox process.

In the frame of a modern waste management, an important sector concerns the sewage sludge minimization. In recent years a lot of techniques have been developed to reduce the sludge production such as biological, thermal, thermochemical, high-temperature oxidation and mechanical treatments, ultrasonication and ozonation, or using chemical compounds. Among those, the use of an anaerobic side-stream reactor (ASSR) in the conventional activated sludge line is a challenging biological technology able to minimize sludge production in wastewater treatment plants. The ASSR can be easily realized in both new and existing plants as it consists of an ASSR for sludge treatment and reduction where a portion or, in some cases, all the return sludge of the activated sludge process is subjected to alternating aerobic, anoxic, and anaerobic conditions. Studies show that, combining a conventional activated process with an ASSR, sludge yield could be reduced by up to 40–60% without any negative effects, neither on t...

In this study, the feasibility of a novel hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) system was evaluated to speed up the biological sludge reduction mechanisms of the anaerobic side-stream reactor (ASSR) process. In the first part of the research, HC was performed on ASSR sludge by using a low pressure swirling jet cavitation system, named Ecowirl – EW 25. The effects of the Ecowirl – EW 25 system, in terms of sludge solubilisation, disintegration degree and microbial activity, were investigated considering two different injection plates, respectively, with two and four injection slots and four different treatment times, from 10 to 80 minutes. The best results were achieved after 80 min of HC treatment, using the plate with two injection slots and with a specific supplied energy (SE) equal to 12670 kJ kg TSS-1. Respirometric tests showed an increase in the readily biodegradable COD through the HC treatment of sludge. Moreover, low endogenous decay rates (bH) were measured on the ASSR sludge for SE lower than 6340 kJ kg TSS-1 revealing that the sludge solubilization was due to a modification in the floc structure rather than a decrease in the biomass viability. In the second part of the research, the solubilized sludge, after HC treatment, was used as carbon substrate for the biological activity of bacteria into the ASSR, such as total phosphate accumulating organisms (TPAOs). Results revealed that the phosphorous releasing and uptake rate, obtained using the HC treated sludge as carbon source, were comparable with those obtained with the addition of a ready biodegradable carbon source such as acetate.

In this study, performances of a SBR-MBBR in terms of COD, TN removal efficiency and sludge production were compared to that of an A/O-MBBR. The SBR-MBBR (40% filling ratio) at 24, 18 and 12 h HRT had a COD and TN removal efficiencies of 88 and 75%, 92 and 72%, 90 and 47%. Increasing the filling ratio to 60% with 12 h HRT, the COD and TN removal efficiencies raised to 93% and 66%, respectively. Thus, increasing the filling ratio of the MBBR the TN removal was improved. The A/O-MBBR configuration achieved a COD and TN removal efficiencies, respectively, of 85% and 72%. This configuration obtained the highest sludge yield due to an increase of the sludge production. Nitrification and denitrification activity tests, performed on attached and suspended biomass, revealed a specialization of the microbial community with the suspended biomass responsible for the denitrification process while the attached biomass for the nitrification. Moreover, a mathematical model consisting of a system of impulsive ordinary differential equations was developed to simulate the SBR-MBBR process. The mathematical model was successfully calibrated and validated through the collected experimental data, resulting in a suitable tool for process efficiency prediction and optimization of operational process conditions.

In order to investigate the impact of the sludge interchange ratio (IR) on both the sludge reduction process and the carbon and nutrient removal efficiencies, an anaerobic side-stream reactor (ASSR) at 20 °C and − 400 mV was operated for 300 days coupled to a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for urban wastewater treatment. It was found that a 100% interchange rate, corresponding to an anaerobic solid retention time (SRTASSR) of 2.5 days, was the most suitable case in terms of sludge reduction and wastewater treatment process, achieving a 66% sludge reduction compared to a control system simulated as an SBR. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonium nitrogen, total nitrogen, and phosphate removal efficiencies of 86.1 ± 7.2, 82.5 ± 11.2, 81.7 ± 12.0, and 62.6 ± 15.0%, respectively, were achieved. When the interchange rate was increased, more ammonium nitrogen and soluble extracellular polymeric substance concentrations were released in the ASSR. This implies that cell lysis and hydrolysis of particulate organic matter in the ASSR were processes of fundamental importance with the increasing mass of sludge cycled to the ASSR. Compared to the release of ammonia, soluble COD release was detected to a lesser extent, due to its consumption by microorganisms in the ASSR. There was also a simultaneous increase in slow-growing microorganisms which use organic carbon for metabolic activities, above all sulfate-reducing bacteria and denitrifying phosphate-accumulating organisms. This increase contributed significantly to sludge reduction in the SBR–ASSR system.

In order to investigate the impact of the sludge interchange ratio (IR) on both the sludge reduction process and the carbon and nutrient removal efficiencies, an anaerobic side-stream reactor (ASSR) at 20 °C and - 400 mV was operated for 300 days coupled to a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for urban wastewater treatment. It was found that a 100% interchange rate, corresponding to an anaerobic solid retention time (SRT