Enhancement of aerobic biodegradability potential of municipal waste activated sludge by ultrasonic aided bacterial disintegration

S Kavitha; G M Jessin Brindha; A Sally Gloriana; K Rajashankar; Ick Tae Yeom; J Rajesh Banu

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2015.10.026

Enhancement of aerobic biodegradability potential of municipal waste activated sludge by ultrasonic aided bacterial disintegration

Bioresour Technol. 2016 Jan:200:161-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.10.026. Epub 2015 Oct 19.

Authors

S Kavitha¹, G M Jessin Brindha¹, A Sally Gloriana², K Rajashankar³, Ick Tae Yeom⁴, J Rajesh Banu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, Regional Centre of Anna University, Tirunelveli, India.
² Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College, Nungambakkam, Chennai 34, India.
³ Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States.
⁴ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁵ Department of Civil Engineering, Regional Centre of Anna University, Tirunelveli, India. Electronic address: rajeshces@gmail.com.

PMID: 26479431
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.10.026

Abstract

An investigation was performed to study the influence of ultrasonic aided bacterial disintegration on the aerobic degradability of sludge. In first phase of the study, effective floc disruption was achieved at an ultrasonic specific energy input of 2.45kJ/kg TS with 44.5mg/L of Extracellular Polymeric Substance (EPS) release including 0.035U/mL and 0.025U/mL protease and amylase activity respectively. In second phase, experimental outcomes revealed bacterial disintegration of floc disrupted-sludge showing a maximum solubilization of about 23% and was observed to be superior to bacterially disintegrated (11%) and control (6%), respectively. The result of aerobic biodegradability of ultrasonic aided bacterially pretreated sludge showed volatile solids (VS) degradation of about 40.2%. The kinetic study of aerobic biodegradability through non linear regression modelling reveals that floc disrupted sludge showed better biodegradability with decay constant of about 0.19d(-1) relatively higher than the control (0.14d(-1)) and bacterially disintegrated (0.17d(-1)) sludges.

Keywords: Aerobic biodegradability; Exponential decay; Floc disruption; Sonic mediated bacterial disintegration; Waste activated sludge.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biodegradation, Environmental*
Sewage / microbiology*
Sonication
Waste Disposal, Fluid*

Substances

Sewage