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Abstract
Waste activated sludge (WAS) requires a long digestion time because of a rate‐limiting hydrolysis step – the first phase of anaerobic digestion. Pretreatment of WAS facilitates the hydrolysis step and improves the digestibility. This study examined the effects of ultrasonic, chemical, and combined chemical–ultrasonic pretreatments on WAS disintegration and its subsequent digestion at different solids retention times (SRTs). The efficient conditions for each pretreatment were evaluated based on per cent soluble chemical oxygen demand (%SCOD). The results showed that the combined chemical–ultrasonic pretreatment resulted in better WAS disintegration, based on %SCOD release, compared with individual chemical and ultrasonic pretreatments. At the optimum operating conditions of the combined chemical–ultrasonic pretreatment (NaOH dose of 10 mg g−1 TS (total solids) and specific energy input of 3.8 kJ g−1TS), the %SCOD release was 18.1% ± 0.5%, whereas 13.5% ± 0.9%, 13.0% ± 0.5% and 1.1% ± 0.1% corresponded to individual chemical (50 mg g−1 TS) and ultrasonic (3.8 kJ g−1 TS) pretreatments and control (without pretreatment), respectively. The anaerobic digestion studies in continuous stirred tank reactors showed an increase in methane production of 23.4% ± 1.3% and 31.1 ± 1.2% for digesters fed with WAS pretreated with ultrasonic and combined chemical–ultrasonic, respectively, with respect to controls at the effective SRT of 15 days. The highest total solids removal was achieved in the digester fed with ultrasonic pretreated WAS (16.6% ± 0.3%), whereas the highest volatile solids removal was achieved from the digester fed with combined chemical–ultrasonic pretreated WAS (24.8 ± 0.4%). The findings from this study are a useful contribution to new pretreatment techniques in the field of sludge treatment technology through anaerobic digestion.