Cation exchange resin-induced hydrolysis for improving biodegradability of waste activated sludge: Characterization of dissolved organic matters and microbial community

Heliang Pang; Yiwen Chen; Junguo He; Dabin Guo; Xinlei Pan; Yingqun Ma; Fangshu Qu; Jun Nan

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122870

Cation exchange resin-induced hydrolysis for improving biodegradability of waste activated sludge: Characterization of dissolved organic matters and microbial community

Bioresour Technol. 2020 Apr:302:122870. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122870. Epub 2020 Jan 23.

Authors

Heliang Pang¹, Yiwen Chen², Junguo He³, Dabin Guo⁴, Xinlei Pan⁵, Yingqun Ma⁶, Fangshu Qu³, Jun Nan⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China. Electronic address: 15B927008@hit.edu.cn.
² School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China. Electronic address: 15B927050@hit.edu.cn.
³ School of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
⁴ School of Environmental Science & Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China; Advanced Environmental Biotechnology Centre, Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, Singapore 637141, Singapore.
⁵ School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
⁶ Advanced Environmental Biotechnology Centre, Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, Singapore 637141, Singapore.

PMID: 32004809
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122870

Abstract

This study reported an efficient and green approach towards facilitating hydrolysis of waste activated sludge (WAS) using cation exchange resin (CER) as a recyclable additive. Through CER-mediated removal of multivalent cations, WAS flocs were disintegrated into small particles with extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) solubilization. At CER dosage of 1.75 g/g SS, SCOD increased to 2579 mg/L (SCOD/TCOD = 15.9%) after 8-h hydrolysis. Afterwards, CER displayed further sludge hydrolysis performance lasting 2 days, i.e. SCOD/TCOD = 34.2%. Meanwhile, proteins, carbohydrates and other organics in dissolved organic matters (DOMs) were major contributors for volatile fatty acids (VFAs) accumulation, with composition percentage: VFAs (58.9%) > proteins (21.8%) > other organics (8.8%) > humic acids (5.9%) > carbohydrates (4.4%). The biodegradable tryptophan-like and tyrosine-like proteins were major proteins, while other organics included amino acids, aliphatic and metabolic intermediates. More than 85.2% of DOMs were easily biodegradable. Moreover, CER-induced hydrolysis modified microbial community structure through inhibiting VFAs-utilizing microbes, while hydrolytic-acidogenic bacteria were enriched, responsible for DOMs biodegradation.

Keywords: Cation exchange resin (CER); Dissolved organic matters (DOMs); Hydrolysis; Volatile fatty acids (VFAs); Waste activated sludge (WAS).

MeSH terms

Cation Exchange Resins
Extracellular Polymeric Substance Matrix
Fatty Acids, Volatile
Hydrolysis
Microbiota*
Sewage*

Substances

Cation Exchange Resins
Fatty Acids, Volatile
Sewage