Enhanced anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge digestion by the addition of zero valent iron.

Anaerobic digestion is promising technology to recover energy from waste activated sludge. However, the sludge digestion is limited by its low efficiency of hydrolysis-acidification. Zero valent iron (ZVI) as a reducing material is expected to enhance anaerobic process including the hydrolysis-acidification process. Considering that, ZVI was added into an anaerobic sludge digestion system to accelerate the sludge digestion in this study. The results indicated that ZVI effectively enhanced the decomposition of protein and cellulose, the two main components of the sludge. Compared to the control test without ZVI, the degradation of protein increased 21.9% and the volatile fatty acids production increased 37.3% with adding ZVI. More acetate and less propionate are found during the hydrolysis-acidification with ZVI. The activities of several key enzymes in the hydrolysis and acidification increased 0.6-1 time. ZVI made the methane production raise 43.5% and sludge reduction ratio increase 12.2 percent points. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis showed that the abundances of hydrogen-consuming microorganisms including homoacetogens and hydrogenotrophic methanogens with ZVI were higher than the control, which reduced the H2 accumulation to create a beneficial condition for the sludge digestion in thermodynamics.

[1]  D. L. Hawkes,et al.  Sustainable fermentative hydrogen production: challenges for process optimisation , 2002 .

[2]  J. Ahn,et al.  Use of microwave pretreatment for enhanced anaerobiosis of secondary sludge. , 2004, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[3]  A. Chacuk,et al.  Kinetic model of excess activated sludge thermohydrolysis. , 2012, Water research.

[4]  N. Ren,et al.  Enhanced hydrogen production from waste activated sludge by cascade utilization of organic matter in microbial electrolysis cells. , 2012, Water research.

[5]  P. Nielsen,et al.  Enzymatic activity in the activated-sludge floc matrix , 1995, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[6]  N. Heo,et al.  Solubilization of waste activated sludge by alkaline pretreatment and biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests for anaerobic co-digestion of municipal organic waste. , 2003, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[7]  Y. Kamagata,et al.  Phylogenetic Analysis of Methanogens in Sheep Rumen Ecosystem and Detection of Methanomicrobium mobile by Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization , 2000, Bioscience, biotechnology, and biochemistry.

[8]  Jih‐Gaw Lin,et al.  Alkaline and ultrasonic pretreatment of sludge before anaerobic digestion , 1997 .

[9]  Jean-Philippe Steyer,et al.  A statistical comparison of protein and carbohydrate characterisation methodology applied on sewage sludge samples. , 2013, Water research.

[10]  Lu Lv,et al.  Nitrate reduction using nanosized zero-valent iron supported by polystyrene resins: role of surface functional groups. , 2011, Water research.

[11]  H. Carrère,et al.  Effect of ultrasonic, thermal and ozone pre-treatments on waste activated sludge solubilisation and anaerobic biodegradability , 2006 .

[12]  A. Tiehm,et al.  Ultrasonic waste activated sludge disintegration for improving anaerobic stabilization. , 2001, Water research.

[13]  Shangtian Yang,et al.  Kinetic study and mathematical modeling of methanogenesis of acetate using pure cultures of methanogens , 1987, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[14]  A. Filibeli,et al.  Disintegration of biological sludge: Effect of ozone oxidation and ultrasonic treatment on aerobic digestibility. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[15]  In Wook Nah,et al.  Mechanical pretreatment of waste activated sludge for anaerobic digestion process , 2000 .

[16]  G Lettinga,et al.  Challenge of psychrophilic anaerobic wastewater treatment. , 2001, Trends in biotechnology.

[17]  Shiro Nagai,et al.  Inhibition of the Fermentation of Propionate to Methane by Hydrogen, Acetate, and Propionate , 1990, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[18]  N. Fujiwara,et al.  Purification and characterization of a protease from Pseudomonas aeruginosa grown in cutting oil. , 2004, Journal of bioscience and bioengineering.

[19]  Shuo Chen,et al.  Optimization of anaerobic acidogenesis by adding Fe0 powder to enhance anaerobic wastewater treatment , 2012 .

[20]  Yuxiao Zhao,et al.  Understanding short-chain fatty acids accumulation enhanced in waste activated sludge alkaline fermentation: kinetics and microbiology. , 2010, Environmental science & technology.

[21]  Martin Stratmann,et al.  Iron corrosion by novel anaerobic microorganisms , 2004, Nature.

[22]  N. Ren,et al.  Assessing optimal fermentation type for bio-hydrogen production in continuous-flow acidogenic reactors. , 2007, Bioresource technology.

[23]  Irini Angelidaki,et al.  Acetate Oxidation Is the Dominant Methanogenic Pathway from Acetate in the Absence of Methanosaetaceae , 2006, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[24]  I. Ferrer,et al.  Increasing biogas production by thermal (70 °C) sludge pre-treatment prior to thermophilic anaerobic digestion , 2008 .

[25]  D. C. Cooper,et al.  Zinc Immobilization and Magnetite Formation via Ferric Oxide Reduction by Shewanella putrefaciens 200 , 2000 .

[26]  Ling Wang,et al.  Determining the limits of anaerobic co-digestion of thickened waste activated sludge with grease interceptor waste. , 2013, Water research.

[27]  Shuo Chen,et al.  Enhanced azo dye wastewater treatment in a two-stage anaerobic system with Fe0 dosing. , 2012, Bioresource technology.

[28]  G. Demirer,et al.  Anaerobic acidification of sugar-beet processing wastes: Effect of operational parameters , 2011 .

[29]  Lee R Lynd,et al.  Quantification of cell and cellulase mass concentrations during anaerobic cellulose fermentation: development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based method with application to Clostridium thermocellum batch cultures. , 2003, Analytical chemistry.

[30]  H. Carrère,et al.  Pretreatment methods to improve sludge anaerobic degradability: a review. , 2010, Journal of hazardous materials.

[31]  J. Lebrato,et al.  Biomass stabilization in the anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludges. , 2006, Bioresource technology.

[32]  Jeongsik Kim,et al.  Effects of various pretreatments for enhanced anaerobic digestion with waste activated sludge. , 2003, Journal of bioscience and bioengineering.

[33]  Sangeun Oh,et al.  The relative effectiveness of pH control and heat treatment for enhancing biohydrogen gas production. , 2003, Environmental science & technology.

[34]  M. Elektorowicz,et al.  Modification of activated sludge properties caused by application of continuous and intermittent current. , 2013, Water research.

[35]  R. Devereux,et al.  Acetogenic and Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria Inhabiting the Rhizoplane and Deep Cortex Cells of the Sea Grass Halodule wrightii , 1999, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[36]  Irini Angelidaki,et al.  Homoacetogenesis as the alternative pathway for H2 sink during thermophilic anaerobic degradation of butyrate under suppressed methanogenesis. , 2007, Water research.

[37]  R. Stjernholm,et al.  PURIFICATION AND PROPERTIES OF ENZYMES INVOLVED IN THE PROPIONIC ACID FERMENTATION , 1964, Journal of bacteriology.

[38]  W. Liu,et al.  Characterization of microbial consortia in a terephthalate-degrading anaerobic granular sludge system. , 2001, Microbiology.

[39]  Hubert Bahl,et al.  Level of enzymes involved in acetate, butyrate, acetone and butanol formation by Clostridium acetobutylicum , 1983, European journal of applied microbiology and biotechnology.

[40]  R. Sparling,et al.  Effect of Sulfidogenic and Methanogenic Inhibitors on Reductive Dehalogenation of 2-Chlorophenol , 2005, Environmental technology.

[41]  X. Xing,et al.  Progress and perspectives of sludge ozonation as a powerful pretreatment method for minimization of excess sludge production. , 2009, Water research.

[42]  A. E. Greenberg,et al.  Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater : supplement to the sixteenth edition , 1988 .

[43]  Xie Quan,et al.  Adding Fe0 powder to enhance the anaerobic conversion of propionate to acetate , 2013 .

[44]  Yuxiao Zhao,et al.  Waste activated sludge fermentation for hydrogen production enhanced by anaerobic process improvement and acetobacteria inhibition: the role of fermentation pH. , 2010, Environmental science & technology.

[45]  Lei Wang,et al.  Avoiding propionic acid accumulation in the anaerobic process for biohydrogen production , 2006 .

[46]  J. Baeyens,et al.  Principles and potential of the anaerobic digestion of waste-activated sludge , 2008 .

[47]  Zhongtang Yu,et al.  Putting microbes to work in sequence: recent advances in temperature-phased anaerobic digestion processes. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[48]  L. Daniels,et al.  Bacterial Methanogenesis and Growth from CO2 with Elemental Iron as the Sole Source of Electrons , 1987, Science.