Persulfate oxidation for alternative sludge treatment and nutrient recovery: An assessment of technical and economic feasibility

Abstract

The introduce of tighter waste disposal regulations and increasing resource scarcity make the re-utilization of waste activated sludge a hot and crucial research topic. Compared with traditional sludge disposal technologies (e.g. landfill and incineration), advanced oxidation processes have been proven to be an environmentally friendly method for sludge stabilization and disintegration. However, the effectiveness of persulfate oxidation for sludge degradation, and the re-utilization of its embedded nutrients have been rarely reported. Therefore, this work is to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of using persulfate oxidation and struvite precipitation for sludge degradation and nutrient recovery. The results show that with the assistance of ultraviolet radiation, released phosphate and ammonia nitrogen from sludge could reach 233.4 and 265.6 mg/L. Besides, 92.8% phosphate and 32.6% ammonia-nitrogen could be recovered by struvite precipitation at a pH of 9.5, with an Mg: P molar ratio of 1.1:1. The economic analysis shows that the operational cost of the proposed process was 25% higher than traditional sludge disposal (267.5 $/ton), but its capital investment is much lower. Investigations on chemical dosage minimization, energy reclamation and process optimization are suggested to reduce the process's operating cost in the future.