Process optimization and effect of thermal, alkaline, H2O2 oxidation and combination pretreatment of sewage sludge on solubilization and anaerobic digestion

Abstract Background This study investigated the feasibility of enhancing anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge with triple, dual, and individual pretreatment of waste activated sludge with heat, alkalinity, and hydrogen peroxide. These pretreatments disrupt sludge flocs, organisms’ cell walls, extracellular polymeric substance, and intracellular organic matter, which increase biodegradability and hydrolysis rate of activate sludge. In addition, the influence of various variables on methane production was analyzed using the response surface methodology with the quadratic model. Eventually, an optimized temperature and chemical concentration for the highest methane production and lowest chemical usage is suggested. Results The highest amount of methane production was obtained from the sludge pretreated with triple pretreatment (heat (90 °C), alkaline (pH = 12), and hydrogen peroxide (30 mg H2O2/g TS)), which had better performance with 96% higher methane production than that of the control sample with temperature of 25 °C approximately and a pH = 8. Response surface methodology with a quadratic model was also used for analyzing the influence of temperature, pH, and hydrogen peroxide concentration on anaerobic digestion efficiency. It was revealed that the optimized temperature, pH, and hydrogen peroxide concentration for maximizing methane production and solubilization of sludge and minimizing thermal energy and chemical additives of the pretreatments are 83.2 °C, pH = 10.6 and 34.8 mg H2O2/g TS, respectively, has the desirability of 0.67. Conclusion This study reveals that triple pretreatment of waste activated sludge performed better than dual and individual pretreatment, respectively, in all desirable output parameters including increasing methane production as the most important output, increasing in COD solubilization, protein and polysaccharide, and decreasing in VSS solubilization.