Bioelectrochemically-assisted anaerobic composting process enhancing compost maturity of dewatered sludge with synchronous electricity generation.

Bioelectrochemically-assisted anaerobic composting process (AnC BE ) with dewatered sludge as the anode fuel was constructed to accelerate composting of dewatered sludge, which could increase the quality of the compost and harvest electric energy in comparison with the traditional anaerobic composting (AnC). Results revealed that the AnC BE yielded a voltage of 0.60 ± 0.02 V, and total COD (TCOD) removal reached 19.8 ± 0.2% at the end of 35d. The maximum power density was 5.6 W/m 3 . At the end of composting, organic matter content (OM) reduction rate increased to 19.5 ± 0.2% in AnC BE and to 12.9 ± 0.1% in AnC. The fuzzy comprehensive assessment (FCA) result indicated that the membership degree of class I of AnC BE compost (0.64) was higher than that of AnC compost (0.44). It was demonstrated that electrogenesis in the AnC BE could improve the sludge stabilization degree, accelerate anaerobic composting process and enhance composting maturity with bioelectricity generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]