TY - JOUR
T1 - Use of activated sludge biomass as an agent for advanced primary separation
AU - Araneda, Michael
AU - Pavez, Javier
AU - Luza, Benjamín
AU - Jeison, David
N1 - Funding Information:
Authors want to thank financial support provided by FONDECYT project 1150982 (CONICYT, Chile) and by CRHIAM centre (CONICYT/FONDAP/15130015). Authors would also like to acknowledge the support provided by Aguas Araucania, by providing access to their sewage treatment plants.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/5/1
Y1 - 2017/5/1
N2 - Conventional primary settling is a physical process of solid-liquid separation, normally presenting low removal efficiencies. Improvement of this separation process would result in energetic advantages: lower aeration requirements and higher biogas production form primary and secondary sludges. Secondary sludge has been proposed as a potential agent promoting an increase in primary separation efficiency. Few processes have been proposed, based on the cultivation of sludge under special conditions. However, one can speculate that regular sludge may have a similar effect. The aim of this research was to study that possibility. Sludges from different activated sludge reactors were tested. Results showed that COD removals were up to 55%, 2 times higher than that for simple settling. Under that condition, COD balances showed that aeration requirements would reduce 40%, and biogas production from primary and secondary sludges would increase 50%. It is inferred then that the application of activated sludge as an external agent represents an interesting alternative that have the potential to significantly improve energetic efficiency of sewage treatment plants.
AB - Conventional primary settling is a physical process of solid-liquid separation, normally presenting low removal efficiencies. Improvement of this separation process would result in energetic advantages: lower aeration requirements and higher biogas production form primary and secondary sludges. Secondary sludge has been proposed as a potential agent promoting an increase in primary separation efficiency. Few processes have been proposed, based on the cultivation of sludge under special conditions. However, one can speculate that regular sludge may have a similar effect. The aim of this research was to study that possibility. Sludges from different activated sludge reactors were tested. Results showed that COD removals were up to 55%, 2 times higher than that for simple settling. Under that condition, COD balances showed that aeration requirements would reduce 40%, and biogas production from primary and secondary sludges would increase 50%. It is inferred then that the application of activated sludge as an external agent represents an interesting alternative that have the potential to significantly improve energetic efficiency of sewage treatment plants.
KW - Activated sludge
KW - Advanced primary separation
KW - Bioflocculation
KW - Biogas
KW - Biosorption
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85012267475&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.01.030
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.01.030
M3 - Article
C2 - 28160643
AN - SCOPUS:85012267475
VL - 192
SP - 156
EP - 162
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
SN - 0301-4797
ER -