Increased Stability of Anaerobic Digestion by Controlled Recirculation

Abstract

The treatment characteristics of municipal sludge were investigated by the anaerobic activated sludge digestion (AASD) system. This study used the suspended growth system and mesophilic temperature in the digestors and separators; the system achieves a more stable and improved process; such a process configuration offers the possibility of a substantial reduction in the total volume necessary for efficient stabilization. This study presents data indicating that the AASS system is feasible. In general, with an applied solids concentration of TS= 2%, the nonbiodegradable portion of the substrate concentration contained in the primary and secondary sludge was found to be 40.6% and 35.1% on the basis or TVS and COD, respectively. This study also provides evidence that the reactions at a recycling ratio of R=1 and R=3 are considerably more stable than those achieved in conventional or other recycling ratio digestors with a HRT of 9 days or longer. The gas production and bioactivity is also higher than that normally produced by the conventional single-stage digestion system. The experimental results also indicate that the dilution rate exceeds the maximum specific growth rate as the HRT is decreased from 9 days to 6 days. The significant saving in reactor volume and enhanced methane generation should offset the energy required for digested sludge recycling.