Enhanced biodegradability of dairy sludge by microwave assisted alkaline and acidic pre-treatments

Abstract

Considering the rapid, volumetric and selective heating effects of microwaves the microwave assisted chemical methods could provide appropriate alternatives for conventional thermal methods in sludge processing. Microwave irradiation alone is suitable to accelerate the hydrolysis stage of anaerobic decomposition of sludge resulted in accelerated biogas production rate and in higher biogas yield. Alkaline pre-treatments increase the organic matter solubility and suitable for disintegration of sludge particles. In some study are concluded that acidic conditions help the disintegration of waste activated sludge and assist in the solubilisation of carbohydrates and proteins which led to increased higher biogas production, as well. Beside the promising results related to effects of microwave pre-treatments on anaerobic digestion of sludge there are very few reports on the investigation of combined acidic/alkali-microwave pre-treatment method for food industry originated sludge. Hence, our study focused on the examination of the effects of combined microwave-alkali and microwave-acidic pre-treatment on aerobic and anaerobic biodegradability of sludge produced in dairy industry
 Our experimental results verified, that microwave irradiation with alkaline dosage improve the solubility of organic matters in the pH range of 8-12. But enhancement of disintegration was not correlated linearly with biodegradability. During pre-treatment stage, applying pH over 10, the aerobic biodegradability show decreasing tendency. Applying of acidic condition during microwave irradiation resulted in lower disintegration degree than obtained for microwave-alkaline sludge pre-treatment method. But with microwave assisted acidic pre-treatments a higher aerobic biodegradability could be achieved than with alkaline dosage. In microwave pre-treatments acidic condition was preferable to increase the shorter aerobic biodegradability; the alkaline condition was favourable to intensify the anaerobic digestion process.

Microwave and Ultrasound Based Methods in Sludge Treatment: A Review

“…Dogan and Sanin found that the SCOD/TCOD ratio could be increased by combining microwave irradiation with alkaline treatment up to 0.37, however, the level of pH plays a key role in the entire process, with pH 12.5 being the optimal one [43]. Beszédes et al also investigated the effects of different pH (ranging from pH 2-12) on the change in SCOD/TCOD ratio and found that at any given total irradiated microwave energy level (70 kJ/L, 150 kJ/L, 230 kJ/L) a pH of 12.0 resulted in the highest SCOD/TCOD ratio (0.33) [48]. Lemmer et al came to a similar conclusion; when combining microwave treatment with alkaline, increasing the alkaline dosage and microwave energy intensity, DD could be enhanced up to a certain point (about 50%) [49].…”