Comparative study of low-energy ultrasonic and alkaline treatment on biosludge from secondary industrial wastewater treatment.

In this study, low-energy ultrasonic (3 and 6 kJ/g volatile solids of feed biomass (FB) which was lower than the heat value of the FB), alkaline, and ultrasonic-alkaline pretreatments were applied on FB, a biosludge from secondary industrial wastewater treatment. Biochemical methane potential (BMP), particle size distribution, Biomass Stress Index (BSI™), soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), protein, carbohydrate, and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) fingerprints were used to comparatively study the mechanisms of these pretreatment methods. The results indicated that low-energy ultrasonication and alkali exhibited significantly different impacts on the FB. After ultrasonication with energy input of 6 kJ/g-VS, the average particle size of FB was reduced from 102.6 to 19.4 µm. However, ultrasonication had no obvious effect on microbial cells rupture, solubilization of protein and carbohydrate, and SEC fingerprint. Consequently, low-energy ultrasonication could not enhance methane generation. However, after alkaline pretreatment with dosage of 0.3 g-NaOH/g-VS, SCOD, soluble protein, and soluble carbohydrate concentration of FB increased from 0.66, 0.00, 0.07 to 2.83, 0.83, 0.47 g/L, respectively. At the same time, BSI™ increased from 5.3% to 96.8%, and the SEC fingerprint changed significantly. Consequently, the methane generation in the BMP test increased from 68.9 to 135.0 mL. Ultrasonic-alkaline pretreatment was similar to alkaline pretreatment in terms of methane generation. Based on this study, alkaline pretreatment is recommended over both low-energy ultrasonic and low-energy ultrasonic-alkaline pretreatment to enhance the biodegradability of FB.

Regression based state space adaptive model of two-phase anaerobic reactor.

In this paper, a linear state space model for the two-phase anaerobic reactor system was developed based on historical data. Subsequently, the model was used to predict its future behavior. The state space model developed involved correlation analysis and model development. The model would be updated at every time point when a new data set became available, giving it an "adaptive" feature. The model was then applied to monitor two-phase anaerobic co-digestion of a feed comprising 2 industrial secondary sludges and 2 industrial wastewaters. The case study showed the proposed model was able to provide good predictions of various process parameters. In addition, it also predicted impending process failure and this would have allowed the operator to take necessary measures to prevent or reduce impact of such failure during plant operation.

Effect of a high strength chemical industry wastewater on microbial community dynamics and mesophilic methane generation.

A high strength chemical industry wastewater was assessed for its impact on anaerobic microbial community dynamics and consequently mesophilic methane generation. Cumulative methane production was 251 mL/g total chemical oxygen demand removed at standard temperature and pressure at the end of 30 days experimental period with a highest recorded methane percentage of 80.6% of total biogas volume. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) analysis revealed that acetic acid was the major intermediate VFAs produced with propionic acid accumulating over the experimental period. Quantitative analysis of microbial communities in the test and control groups with quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction highlighted that in the test group, Eubacteria (96.3%) was dominant in comparison with methanogens (3.7%). The latter were dominated by Methanomicrobiales and Methanobacteriales while Methanosarcinaceae in test groups increased over the experimental period, reaching a maximum on day 30. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profile was performed, targeting the 16S rRNA gene of Eubacteria and Archaea, with the DNA samples extracted at 3 different time points from the test groups. A phylogenetic tree was constructed for the sequences using the neighborhood joining method. The analysis revealed that the presence of organisms resembling Syntrophomonadaceae could have contributed to increased production of acetic and propionic acid intermediates while decrease of organisms resembling Pelotomaculum sp. could have most likely contributed to accumulation of propionic acid. This study suggested that the degradation of organic components within the high strength industrial wastewater is closely linked with the activity of certain niche microbial communities within eubacteria and methanogens.