Characteristics of advanced anaerobic digestion sludge-based biochar and its application for sewage sludge conditioning.

The utilization of sludge-based biochar, characterized by abundant pore structures, proves advantageous in enhancing sludge dewatering performance. In this study, advanced anaerobic digestion sludge underwent pyrolysis to produce biochar, subsequently employed for sludge conditioning. Results revealed that biochar, obtained at 800 °C, exhibited the highest specific surface area (105.3 m2/g) and pore volume (0.17 cm3/g). As the pyrolysis temperature increased, the sludge's functional groups tended to aromatize. When used to condition sludge, particularly at a 20 % (dry solid) dosage, biochar significantly reduced sludge capillary suction time and floc size. The addition of biochar enhanced the conditioning effect of cationic polyacrylamide by absorbing extracellular polymeric substances, creating water molecule channels, and forming skeletons for sludge flocs. These findings introduce a novel approach to sludge reuse and provide valuable data supporting the use of biochar as a sludge conditioner.

The application of chitosan quaternary ammonium salt to replace polymeric aluminum ferric chloride for sewage sludge dewatering.

Inorganic coagulants such as poly aluminum ferric chloride (Al/Fe) are applied conventionally to sewage sludge dewatering and can be retained in the sludge cake, causing its conductivity to increase and generate secondary pollution. To reduce these disadvantages, there is a need to develop alternative, more sustainable chemicals as substitutes for conventional inorganic coagulants. In the present investigation, the application of a polymeric chitosan quaternary ammonium salt (CQAS) is explored as a complete, or partial, replacement for Al/Fe in the context of sludge dewatering processes. Laboratory experiments using digested sewage sludge showed that CQAS could effectively substitute for over 80 % of the Al/Fe inorganic coagulant in the sludge dewatering process. This substitution resulted in a reduction of sludge cake conductivity by more than 50 %. Simulation of sludge dewatering curves and imaging of the sludge surface indicated that the addition of CQAS led to an increase in nanosized pores, and a decrease in the specific resistance of the sludge filter cake as the dosage of Al/Fe decreased to around 30 %. The variations of fluorescence emission, quantum yield and carboxylic and amino groups, suggested that the chelating of Al/Fe decreased due to the bridging effects of CQAS. The CQAS had different flocculation bridging effects on various EPS fractions, which varied the amount of protein chelated with Al/Fe in each fraction. This study provides new information about the benefits of replacing conventional inorganic coagulants with natural organic polymers for sewage sludge dewatering, in terms of reduced sludge cake conductivity and greater dry solids content.

Fate of organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) in the "Cambi® TH + AAD" of sludge in a WWTP in Beijing, China.

Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) are emerging environmental pollutants that cause endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity. Sewage sludge is an important source of tri-OPFRs that are released into the environment. The occurrence, distribution, and ecological risk of OPFRs in the full-scale "Cambi® thermal hydrolysis (TH) + advanced anaerobic digestion (AAD) + plate-frame pressure filtration" sludge treatment process is closely related to the application of sewage sludge. We tested sludge samples from a wastewater treatment plant in Beijing, China. Nine tri-OPFRs were detected in the sludge samples collected at different treatment units during four seasons. The ΣOPFRs decreased from 1,742.65-2,579.68 ng/g to 971.48-1,702.22 ng/g. The mass flow of tri-OPFRs in treated sludge decreased by 61.4%, 48.9%, 42.4%, and 63.9% in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively, effectively reducing the corresponding ecological risk. The ecological risk of tri-OPFRs in sludge in forestland utilization mainly lies in chlorinated tri-OPFRs, especially TCPP and TCEP. No >42.20 t/hm2 of sludge could be used continuously for one year to prevent tri-OPFRs from exceeding the low ecological risk level, indicating that the current commonly applied proportion of sludge (1.6-30 t/hm2) will likely not raise the ecological risk of tri-OPFRs.

The function of "Cambi® thermal hydrolysis + anaerobic digestion" on heavy metal behavior and risks in a full-scale sludge treatment plant based on four seasons investigation.

The environmental risk of heavy metals in sewage sludge from a full-scale "Cambi® thermal hydrolysis + anaerobic digestion" sludge treatment plant was discussed based on four seasons' data. Results showed that the order of heavy metal concentration in sludge was Zn > Cu > Cr > Ni > As > Pb > Hg > Cd, which all increased significantly due to the "enrichment effect" caused by the degradation of organics. Nevertheless, the mass of heavy metals except for Cd decreased. Chemical fractions of different heavy metals in raw sludge varied greatly. The proportion of their residual fraction all increased slightly after treatment. Thermal hydrolysis and anaerobic digestion led to the transformation of some heavy metal fractions. Deep dehydration process reduced the mass of heavy metals from sludge (less than 10%). Potential ecological risk of heavy metals was low (RI <150) when sludge is applied 0.75 kg/m2 to soil according to GB 4284-2018, in which the risk of Hg and Cd was highest. Furthermore, the accumulation amounts of heavy metals in test soil and rural soil with the annual sludge application amount of 0.75 kg/m2 for 15 years were calculated, which did not exceed GB 36600-2018 and GB 15618-2018 respectively.

Variations of sludge characteristics during the advanced anaerobic digestion process and the dewaterability of the treated sludge conditioning with PFS, PDMDAAC and synthesized PFS-PDMDAAC.

Anaerobic digestion with thermal hydrolysis pretreatment (THP), also called advanced anaerobic digestion (AAD), is a mainstream technology for sludge treatment. AAD changes sludge, it can degrade extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), release EPS from the sludge, and alter the particle size distribution. We synthesized PFS-PDMDAAC from the inorganic coagulant polyferric sulfate (PFS) and the organic coagulant polymer polydimethyldiallylammonium chloride (PDMDAAC) in various PFS:PDMDAAC weight ratios. We investigated the effects of PFS-PDMDAAC pretreatment on AAD sludge dewaterability, and developed an explanation for them. Capillary suction time (CST) was used as a measure of sludge dewaterability. Dissolved organic matter, the three-dimensional excitation emission matrix, particle size (d0.5), zeta potential, and sludge microstructure were observed in order to explain changes in sludge dewaterability that resulted from different compositions and dosages of coagulants. Treatment with PFS alone gave no significant improvement in sludge dewaterability. PDMDAAC used alone greatly improved sludge dewaterability. Synthesized PFS-PDMDAAC which had a relatively high proportion of PDMDAAC by weight performed similarly to PDMDAAC. PFS-PDMDAAC synthesized in the ratio (PDF:PDMDAAC) 1:5 by weight provided good dewaterability. The dosage can be reduced by 16.7% of the dosage for conditioning by PDMDAAC alone.

Variations of floc morphology and extracellular organic matters (EOM) in relation to floc filterability under algae flocculation harvesting using polymeric titanium coagulants (PTCs).

The work evaluated the algae cells removal efficiency using titanium salt coagulants with different degree of polymerization (PTCs), and the algae cells aggregates and extracellular organic matter (EOM) under chemical flocculation were investigated. The results indicated that PTCs performed well in algae cells flocculation and separation. The main mechanism using PTCs of low alkalisation degree for algae flocculation was associated with charge neutralization, while adsorption bridging and sweep flocculation was mainly responsible for algae removal by PTCs of high alkalisation degree treatment. In addition, the flocs formed by PTC1.0 showed the best filtration property, and EOM reached the minimum at this time, indicating the flocs formed by PTC1.0 were more compact than other PTCs, which can be confirmed by SEM analysis. Three-dimensional excitation emission matrix fluorescence (3D-EEM) and high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) revealed that the EOMs were removed under PTCs flocculation, which improved floc filterability.

[Impacts of Sludge Characteristics on Anaerobic Digestion with Microwave Pretreatment and Archaeal Community Structure Analysis].

Sludge characteristics is an important factor in sludge pretreatment and anaerobic digestion (AD) efficiency. Therefore, waste sludge of anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic (A2O) and A2O-membrane bioreactor (MBR) wastewater treatment processes from a full-scale wastewater treatment plant were taken, and the variations of sludge characteristics and performance during microwave pretreatment and AD were compared. The succession of archaeal community structure during the sludge treatment was also investigated. A2O waste sludge showed better biodegradability than A2O-MBR waste sludge did, with 16.4% higher organic matter content (66.4% vs. 50.0%), soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) (1.24 fold), soluble protein (2.02 fold), and polysaccharides (4.84 fold). Although the efficiency of microwave pretreatment for A2O-MBR waste sludge was better than that for A2O waste sludge, the latter sludge produced 26.1% more methane than the former did. The two types of waste sludge showed different archaeal community structures. The abundances of Methanothrix and Methanosarcina in A2O-MBR waste sludge were 3.68% and 19.73% higher than that in A2O waste sludge. The richness and evenness of archaeal communities slightly changed after pretreatment, but significantly changed after AD. The Chao1 index increased by 54.0%-68.8% after AD, whereas the Pielou index decreased by 16.2%-34.6%. Redundancy analysis showed that the organic components of waste sludge contributed to the succession of archaeal community structure.