AUTHOR=Rufus D. P. , Banu J. Rajesh , Kannah R. Yukesh , Nguyen Dinh Duc , Kumar Gopalakrishnan , Chang Soon Woong , Raja S. Antony 

TITLE=Effect of Dispersion Treatment on Dairy Waste Activated Sludge to Hasten the Production of Biogas

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Energy Research

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2019

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/energy-research/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2019.00136

DOI=10.3389/fenrg.2019.00136

ISSN=2296-598X

ABSTRACT=The solubilisation potential of biological pretreatment for waste activated sludge (WAS) is limited due to its floc structure. Extra polymeric substances (EPS) is responsible for floc formation.  In this investigation, an attempt has been made to disturb floc structure of WAS by removing EPS through disperser. In first stage, disperser treatment released 242 mg/L of soluble EPS at 3000 rpm with the duration of the 50s and causes deflocculation of WAS. In second stage, deflocculated sludge was subjected to bacterial pretreatment to assess the effect of floc disruption. During bacterial pretreatment, it was found that deflocculated sludge produced higher organic solubilization of 23.9% and suspended solids reduction of 19.1%, when compared to control (10.2%) and (8.7%), respectively. A biogas yield of 220 mL/g COD was recorded in deflocculated sludge and 93 mL/g COD in flocculated sludge. From the above, it is evident that deflocculation effectively enhanced bacterial pretreatment leading to more solubilization and biogas production.