1 AIT Asian Institute of Technology

Effects of the pretreatment of biological sludge on anaerobic digestion

AuthorGanguly, Sudip K.
Call NumberAIT Thesis no.EV-93-36
Subject(s)Sewage--Purification--Activated sludge process

NoteA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering
PublisherAsian Institute of Technology
AbstractThis research was done in three separate phases followed by statistical analysis. In the first phase, WAS was thermochemically pretreated to determine conditions for optimum solubilization and biodegradability. The optimal dosage of Na OH turned out to be in the range of 0.4 to 0.5 gNaOH /gVSS and 0.2 to 0.4 gNaOH /gVSS for solubilization and methanogenesis respectively. In the second phase of the experiments, investigations related to the inhibitory effects were carried out using thermal and thermochemical pretreatment at 115°C, l hr. contact time, and 0.24 gNaOH /gVSS alkali dosage. Reduced methane conversion (20 to 35%) was observed at and beyond FCOD/MVSSseed = 0.4 both in the case of thermal and thermochemically pretreated WAS. Finally, in the third phase Hen Egg Albumin was used to see if, the observed effects of WAS could be explained from the behaviour of its simpler constituents under identical pretreatment conditions. Results indicated very high biodegradability (85 % ) of the protein used. Inhibitory effects on methane conversion were observed both in the case of thermal (12 to 33%) and thermochemical (18 to 33%) with respect to the control possibly, due to formation of nonbiodegradable substances at a high pretreatment temperature (115°C) and also due to the presence of alkali dosage (0.24gNaOH /gVSS) leading to effects observed in the case of WAS. Statistical analysis confirmed the experimental findings. Contributory effects due to. FCOD/MVSSseed, Pretreatment Conditions and Time (days) on methanogenic activity were evaluated using The Three way ANOV A Technique at three levels of Significance (0.01, 0.04, and 0.001). Analysis revealed appreciably high reliability of data obtained especially in the case of WAS. The quantitative trends evaluated using the concept of pure effects due to each of the above explanatory variable supported the experimental findings.
Year1993
TypeThesis
SchoolSchool of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD)
DepartmentDepartment of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC))
Academic Program/FoSEnvironmental Engineering and Management (EV)
Chairperson(s)Fujii, Shigeo;
Examination Committee(s)Samorn Muttamara;Umita, Teruyuki;Tanaka, Shuzo;
Scholarship Donor(s)Government of Japan;
DegreeThesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1993


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