title: Enhancing methane production from waste activated sludge using a novel indigenous iron activated peroxidation pre-treatment process.
abstract: Methane production from anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge (WAS) is limited by the slow hydrolysis rate and/or poor methane potential of WAS. This study presents a novel pre-treatment strategy based on indigenous iron (in WAS) activated peroxidation to enhance methane production from WAS. Pre-treatment of WAS for 30 min at 50mg H2O2/g total solids (dry weight) and pH 2.0 (iron concentration in WAS was 7 mg/g TS) substantially enhanced WAS solubilization. Biochemical methane potential tests demonstrated that methane production was improved by 10% at a digestion time of 16d after incorporating the indigenous iron activated peroxidation pre-treatment. Model-based analysis indicated that indigenous iron activated peroxidation pre-treatment improved the methane potential by 13%, whereas the hydrolysis rate was not significantly affected. The economic analysis showed that the proposed pre-treatment method can save the cost by $112,000 per year in a treatment plant with a population equivalent of 300,000.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia. Electronic address: q.wang@awmc.uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Qilin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Guangming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D001669:Biochemical Phenomena; D056804:Biofuels / Q000191:economics; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000737:chemistry; D006868:Hydrolysis; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*; D008697:Methane / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012722:Sewage; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D012722:Sewage; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D007501:Iron; D008697:Methane
keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Hydrogen peroxide; Methane; Peroxidation; Waste activated sludge