Effect of hydrothermal pre-treatment on physical properties and co-digestion from food waste and sewage sludge mixture

• Published in: Waste management & research Vol. 38; no. 5; pp. 546 - 553
• Main Authors: Park, Seyong, Han, Seong Kuk, Song, Eunhey, Kim, Ho, Kim, Moonil, Lee, Wonbae
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.05.2020; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Activated sludge; Anaerobic digestion; Anaerobiosis; Biofuels; Biogas; Bioreactors; Food; Food waste; Hydrothermal pretreatment; Methane; Organic matter; Organic solids; Physical properties; Refuse Disposal; Sewage; Sewage sludge; Sludge; Sludge digestion; Solubilization; Suction; Temperature; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Waste treatment; Wastewater treatment; Hydrothermal pre-treatment; co-digestion; physical properties; solubilization; food waste and sewage sludge mixture
• ISSN: 0734-242X; 1096-3669
• DOI: 10.1177/0734242X19897123

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is generally considered to be an economic and environmentally friendly technology for treating waste activated sludge, but has some limitations, such as the time it takes for the sludge to be digested and also the ineffectiveness of degrading the solids. Various pre-treatment technologies have been suggested to overcome these limitations and to improve the biogas production rate by enhancing the hydrolysis of organic matter. This paper studies the use of hydrothermal pre-treatment (HTP) for a food waste and sewage sludge mixture (FW–SS mixture) as pre-treatment of co-digestion. The results of the capillary suction time, time to filter, and particle size decreased with increasing HTP temperature. These results of the assessment that was conducted in this study confirm that the HTP process indeed modifies the physical properties of the FW–SS mixture to enhance the solubilization of organic solids. A maximum increase in biogas production of 50% is achieved with a HTP temperature of 140oC. These findings show that to achieve high conversion efficiency, an accurately designed pre-treatment step must be included in the overall AD process for wastewater treatment.