Thermal pretreatment and hydraulic retention time in continuous digesters fed with sewage sludge: assessment using the ADM1.
Thermal pretreatment is an interesting technique not only for increasing sludge biodegradability, leading to higher methane productivity, but also for improving degradation rates, allowing full-scale plants to reduce the size of digesters. In this study, the Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) was used as a tool to assess the effects of thermal pretreatment and hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the performance of three pilot-scale digesters fed with mixed sludge with/without pretreatment applied to the waste activated sludge fraction. Calibration procedures using batch tests showed an increase of up to five times in the model disintegration coefficient due to the pretreatment, and the validations performed presented good accuracy with the experimental data, with under/overestimation lower than 15% in both average and global accumulated CH4 productions. Therefore, the ADM1 demonstrated its feasibility and usefulness in predicting and assessing the behavior of the digesters under these conditions.
Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, University of Valladolid, C/Dr. Mergelina s/n, 47011 Valladolid, Spain. Electronic address: tsouza@iq.uva.es.
Theo S O
TS
Souza
Liliana Catarina
LC
Ferreira
Ieva
I
Sapkaite
Sara I
SI
Pérez-Elvira
Fernando
F
Fdz-Polanco
D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D019149:Bioreactors; D002138:Calibration; D003198:Computer Simulation; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008697:Methane / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid
D012722:Sewage; D008697:Methane
ADM1; Anaerobic digestion; Modeling; Sludge pretreatment; Thermal hydrolysis