Use of gamma-irradiation pretreatment for enhancement of anaerobic digestibility of sewage sludge

Abstract

The effects of γ-irradiation pretreatment on anaerobic digestibility of sewage sludge was investigated in this paper. Parameters like solid components, soluble components, and biogas production of anaerobic digestion experiment for sewage sludge were measured. The values of these parameters were compared before and after γ-irradiation pretreatment. Total solid (TS), volatile solid (VS), suspended solid (SS), volatile suspended solid (VSS), and average floc size of samples decreased after γ-irradiation treatment. Besides, floc size distribution of sewage sludge shifted from 80–100 μm to 0–40 μm after γ-irradiation treatment at the doses from 0 to 30 kGy, which indicated the disintegration of sewage sludge. Moreover, microbe cells of sewage sludge were ruptured by γ-irradiation treatment, which resulted in the release of cytoplasm and increase of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD). Both sludge disintegration and microbe cells rupture enhanced the subsequent anaerobic digestion process, which was demonstrated by the increase of accumulated biogas production. Compared with digesters fed with none irradiated sludge, the accumulated biogas production increased 44, 98, and 178 mL for digesters fed sludge irradiated at 2.48, 6.51, and 11.24 kGy, respectively. The results indicated that γ-irradiation pretreatment could effectively enhance anaerobic digestibility of sewage sludge, and correspondingly, could accelerate hydrolysis process, shorten sludge retention time of sludge anaerobic digestion process.