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Catalpa sawdust was respectively pretreated by NaOH, Ca(OH)2, H2SO4 and HCl solution, and the enzymatic hydrolysis of catalpa sawdust was significantly enhanced by alkaline pretreatments. In order to investigate the mechanisms of pretreatment of catalpa sawdust, the characteristics of catalpa sawdust before and after pretreatments were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. It was found that the surface of catalpa sawdust was disrupted by four kinds of chemical pretreatment, and the pretreatment with Ca(OH)2 solution resulted in the most serious damage. The XRD results showed that part of amorphous regions was damaged by alkaline pretreatments, which led to a relative increase of crystallinity Index (CrI) of catalpa sawdust; while the CrI of catalpa sawdust was insignificantly influenced by acid pretreatments. The FTIR analysis displayed that the molecular structures of hemicellulose and lignin of catalpa sawdust were damaged in different degrees by four types of pretreatment. The significant improvement of enzymatic hydrolysis of catalpa sawdust after alkaline pretreatment might be attributed to the effective delignification of alkaline.

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‘Sonication - cryptic growth’ technology can reduce 30-80% excess sludge in wastewater treatment systems. Various mechanisms contribute to the sludge reduction but the role of each one is unclear. This paper quantitatively studied the potential mechanisms in ‘sonication - cryptic growth’. The operation condition was: every day 20% sludge was sonicated under 1.2 Wml-1 for 15 min and then returned to the wastewater treatment reactor for cryptic growth. The results showed that under such conditions, ‘sonication - cryptic growth’ reduced the excess sludge by 57.3% and the effluent met the national discharge standard. Multiple mechanisms were involved in the process. Detailed analysis showed that the ‘lysis-cryptic growth’ mechanism was the most important one and accounted for 49.1% of sludge reduction. Biodegradation of residual sludge was the second important one and contributed 19.5%. Other potential mechanisms included the altered microbial community, longer sludge retention time, and accumulation of persistent materials. But organic load increase had virtually no impact.

Bioleaching combined with Fenton-like oxidation was used to condition sewage sludge. The results showed that it took approximately 1 d to decrease pH from 6.9 to 2.5 by bioleaching, with fixed sulfur power and FeSO4 x 7H2O dosages of 3 g x L(-1) and 8 g x L(-1), respectively. After bioleaching, the volatile solids(VS) reduction was 13.4%, and the specific resistance to filtration(SRF) dropped from 3.1 x 10(9)s2 x g(-1) to 1.5 x 10(9)s2 x g(-1) with a reduction of 51.6%, but the bioleached sludge was still difficult to be dewatered. The bioleached sludge was further oxidized by Fenton-like oxidation. The results indicated that the optimal H2O2 dosage and reaction time were 3.3 g x L(-1) and 60 min, respectively. Under the optimal conditions, VS reduction was 30.8%, SRF was declined to 1.9 x 10(8) s2 x g(-1) with a reduction of 93.9%, and the moisture of sludge cake was 76.9%. After treated by bioleaching combined with Fenton-like oxidation, the dewaterability and stability of sewage sludge were significantly improved. Besides, the combined technology was more efficient in conditioning sewage sludge than single Fenton-like oxidation.

Lignocellulosic material is the most abundant renewable resource in the earth. Herbivores and wood-eating insects are highly effective in the digestion of plant cellulose, while anaerobic digestion process simulating animal alimentary tract still remains inefficient. The digestion mechanisms of herbivores and wood-eating insects and the development of anaerobic digestion processes of lignocellulose were reviewed for better understanding of animal digestion mechanisms and their application in design and operation of the anaerobic digestion reactor. Highly effective digestion of lignocellulosic materials in animal digestive system results from the synergistic effect of various digestive enzymes and a series of physical and biochemical reactions. Microbial fermentation system is strongly supported by powerful pretreatment, such as rumination of ruminants, cellulase catalysis and alkali treatment in digestive tract of wood-eating insects. Oxygen concentration gradient along the digestive tract may stimulate the hydrolytic activity of some microorganisms. In addition, the excellent arrangement of solid retention time, digesta flow and end product discharge enhance the animal digestion of wood cellulose. Although anaerobic digestion processes inoculated with rumen microorganisms based rumen digestion mechanisms were developed to treat lignocellulose, the fermentation was more greatly limited by the environmental conditions in the anaerobic digestion reactors than that in rumen or hindgut. Therefore, the anaerobic digestion processes simulating animal digestion mechanisms can effectively enhance the degradation of wood cellulose and other organic solid wastes.

Bioleaching-dual polyaluminum chloride (PAC) and polyacrylamide (PAM) addition was used to condition sewage sludge. The results showed that FeSO4 x 7H2O addition improved the bioleaching rate obviously with a fixed sulfur power dosage of 3 g x L(-1); when the FeSO4 x 7H2O dosage was 8 g x L(-1), the bioleaching lasted 1.5 d to decrease the sludge pH below 2. Bioleaching improved the sludge dewaterability significantly with a specific resistance to filtration (SRF) reduction of 77.52% from 6.45 x 10(10)s2 x g(-10 to 1.45 x 10(10)s2 x g(-1), but the bioleached sludge was still difficult to be dewatered. After adjusting the bioleached sludge pH to 6, PAC and PAM were used to enhance conditioning of the bioleached sludge. The results indicated that the optimal dosage was 200 mg x L(-1) for PAC or 50 mg x L(-1) for PAM when single chemical was used. When PAC and PAM were dually used, the optimal dosages of PAC and PAM were 100 mg x L(-1) and 25 mg x L(-1), respectively; SRF and moisture of sludge cake reduced to 2.02 x 10(8) s2 x g(-1) and 74.81%, respectively, showing good dewaterability of the treated sludge. Compared with the single use of PAC and PAM, the dual use of PAC and PAM showed the advantages of lower cost and better conditioning effect.

Fenton oxidation was used to disintegrate extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of excess sludge with its strong oxidation ability. The concentration of polysaccharide, protein and the change of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) disintegrated from EPS represent the EPS disintegration degree. The objective of this study is to optimize the operational conditions for EPS disintegration with Fenton oxidation. It is shown that the optimal operational condition is as following: pH = 2.5, reaction time = 90 min, H2O2/Fe2+ (weight dosage ratio) = 8:1 and reaction temperature is about 65-70 degrees C. Under this condition after the Fenton oxidation, SCOD, concentration of polysaccharide, protein in the supernate increase from 45.88, 10.96 and 11.99 mg x L(-1) to 684.93, 382.17 and 302.62 mg x L(-1), respectively; the average diameter and the median diameter of sludge particulates reduce from 838.89 microm and 859.20 microm to 137.22 microm and 148.69 microm, respectively. As a result, EPS is effectively disintegrated by Fenton oxidation and the sludge is greatly mineralized, which benefits the further sludge reduction and utilization.

Polyaluminum chloride PAC-Al13 with high Al13 content and PAC-Al30 with high Al30 content were prepared. Coagulation behaviors of PAC-Al30, PAC-Al13 and AlCl3 for humic acid removal from water were compared by jar-test. The floc growth, the charge neutralization capacity, the effect of pH and coagulant dosage on coagulation efficiency were investigated, and the residual aluminium in the purified water was considered. The results show that the order of the floc formation capacity is PAC-Al30PAC-Al13AlCl3. PAC-Al30 and PAC-Al13 have a broader effective pH range of 5.0-8.0, compared with AlCl3. The difference of charge neutralization capacity between PAC-Al30 and PAC-Al13 is not significant, but PAC-Al30 performs a more effective coagulation at low coagulant dosages because of its stronger adsorption and bridging, and PAC-Al30 has a broader effective dosage range of 0.08-0.64 mmol/L, compared with AlCl3 and PAC-Al13. The humic acid removal reaches 98.5% at a pH of 7.0 and a PAC-Al30 dosage of 0.16 mmol/L for the sample water with a humic acid content of 10 mg/L; and the residual aluminum in the purified water is 0.066 mg/L. The results verify that Al30 is another highly efficient coagulation/flocculation species for humic acid removal.

Control of residual humic acid and residual aluminium in water with enhanced coagulation was investigated. The influence of various factors on the coagulation was studied, in order to reach the maximum humic acid removal and the minimum aluminium residue simultaneously. Results showed that residual humic acid was controlled below 0.04 cm(-1) and residual aluminium kept at about 0.1 mg/L in water with pH value between 6 and 6.5, the AlCl3 dosage of 0.5 x 10(-3) mol/L, under the temperature of 20 degrees C. Addition 0.01 mol/L of CaCl2 could improve the enhanced coagulation effect. Because the suspended granule concentration changes with seasons, the influence of the kaoline dosage on the humic acid removal process was studied.