Hidenari Yasui

Upgrading of the anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge by combining temperature-phased anaerobic digestion and intermediate ozonation

Upgrading of the anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge (WAS) by the combination of temperature-phased two-stage digestion and intermediate ozonation was investigated by a continuous experiment with two processes, TM and TOM. The TM process is a temperature-phased two-stage system, which consists of a thermophilic digester and a mesophilic digester in series. The TOM process is a temperature-phased two-stage process with the intermediate ozonation. Two processes were operated at hydraulic retention times of 30 days for over 123 days. Waste activated sludge taken from wastewater treatment plant was fed as a substrate. Microbial community structure in each digester was analysed with molecular tools. Despite of less amount of ozone dose in TOM than ozone pre-treatment process, better effect of ozonation on performance improvement was obtained in TOM. TOM had the highest methane yield and COD(Cr) reduction among comparative processes. Furthermore, flocculation efficiency of TOM followed that of mesophilic digestion. Quality of dewatered supernatant is comparable to mesophilic digestion.

Novel anaerobic digestion process with sludge ozonation for economically feasible power production from biogas

A novel process scheme was developed to achieve economically feasible energy recovery from anaerobic digestion. The new process scheme employs a hybrid configuration of mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion with sludge ozonation: the ozonated sludge is first degraded in a thermophilic digester and then further degraded in a mesophilic digester. In small-scale pilot experiments of the new process scheme, degradation of VSS improved by 3.5% over the control (mesophilic-only configuration) with 20% less ozone consumption. Moreover, biogas conversion also improved by 7.1% over the control. Selective enrichment of inorganic compounds during centrifugation produced a dewatered sludge cake with very low water content (59.4%). This low water content in the sludge cake improved its auto-thermal combustion potential during incineration and added to the overall energy savings. We conducted a case study to evaluate power generation from biogas for a municipal wastewater treatment plant with an average dry weather flow of 43,000 m3/d. Electricity production cost was 5.2 ¢/kWh for the advanced process with power generation, which is lower than the current market price of 7.2 ¢/kWh. The new anaerobic digestion scheme with power generation may reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 1,000 t-CO(2)/year compared with the conventional process without power generation.

Evaluation of state variable interface between the Activated Sludge Models and Anaerobic Digestion Model no 1

For plant wide modelling of wastewater treatment, it is necessary to develop a suitable state variables interface for integrating state of the art models of ASM and ADM1. ADM1 currently describes such an interface, however, its suitability needs to be experimentally evaluated. In this study, we characterised activated sludge under aerobic and anaerobic conditions to obtain representative state variables for both models. ASM state variables of X(S), X(H) and X(I) (as obtained from aerobic tests) and ADM1 state variables of X(C) and X(I) (as obtained from anaerobic tests) were then correlated to assess the suitability of current interface. Based on the seven datasets of this study and seven datasets from literatures, it was found that in general ASM state variables were well correlated to the state variables of ADM1. The ADM1 state variable of X(C) could be correlated to the sum of state variables of X(S) and X(H), while X(I) in both the models showed direct correspondence. It was also observed that the degradation kinetics of X(C) under anaerobic condition could be better described by individual degradation kinetics of X(S) and X(H). Therefore, to establish a one to one correspondence between ASM and ADM1 state variables and better description of degradation kinetics in ADM1, replacing the composite variable of X(C) by the state variables of X(S) and X(H) is recommended.

Feasible Power Production from Municipal Sludge Using an Improved Anaerobic Digestion System

Anaerobic digestion with ozonation is a promising process to enhance the digestion efficiency and reduce the sludge quantity for disposal. In this study, new process schemes by incorporating thermophilic digestion were studied for further improvements. Pilot tests were performed with three schemes having mesophilic, thermophilic or mesophilic-thermophilic hybrid reactors. In the process scheme with thermophilic digestion, the degradation ratio of VSS components was observed to improve by 5.5% over mesophilic digestion. The amount of ozone consumption could also be reduced by 18%. However, biogas conversion ratio was not improved due to considerable non-degradable organic fraction remaining in soluble form. In batch tests, this soluble fraction was found to readily degrade by mesophilic microorganism. Based on this observation, a mesophilic-thermophilic hybrid flow scheme was developed. In this flow scheme, thermophilic microbes rapidly degraded ozonated sludge and remaining soluble organic components were converted to biogas by mesophilic microbes. This flow scheme reduced ozone consumption as well as improved the biogas conversion of municipal sludge to 78.6%. The cost performance analysis of a municipal WWTP (population equivalent 150,000) considering electricity production resulted in electricity production cost of 5.0 JPY/kWh, lower than the current market price of 9.3 JPY/kWh.

High nitrite concentration accelerates nitrite oxidising organism's death

High nitrite is a known operation parameter to inhibit the biological oxidation of nitrite to nitrate. The phenomenon is traditionally expressed using a Monod-type equation with non-competitive inhibition, in which the reaction associated with the biomass growth is reduced when high nitrite is present. On the other hand, very high nitrite is also known to slay nitrifiers. To clarify the difference between the growth inhibition and the poisoning, cell counting for living microorganisms in the nitrite oxidiser-enriched activated sludge was conducted in batch conditions under various nitrite concentrations together with measurements of biomass chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration and oxygen uptake rate. The experiments demonstrated that these measureable parameters were all decayed when nitrite concentration exceeded 100-500 mgN/L at pH 7.0 in the system, indicating that nitrite poisoning took place. Biomass growth was recognised in lower range of nitrite which was expressed with growth inhibition only. Based on the response, a kinetic model for the biological nitrite oxidation was developed with a modification of IWA ASM1. The model was further utilised to calculate a possibility to wash out nitrite oxidiser in the aeration tank where a part of the return activated sludge was exposed to high nitrite liquor in a side-stream partial nitritation reactor.

Determination of optimal dose of allylthiourea (ATU) for the batch respirometric test of activated sludge

Allylthiourea is a known specific inhibitor for ammonium oxidiser to suppress its oxygen uptake, and is commonly used for various kinds of batch respirometric tests to detect heterotrophic respiration in activated sludge. However, when high heterotrophs were present in the sample, it appeared the inhibitor was noticeably degraded and reached below the inhibition threshold after a couple of days, which resulted in overestimation of the heterotrophic respiration. The biological decomposition of the inhibitor was expressed with a Monod-type rate expression having a half-saturation coefficient of 980 mg-COD/L and maximum specific growth rate of 1.0 d-1. The developed kinetic model, including the growth and decay of the heterotrophs and nitrifiers, indicated that the ATU with about 90 mg-ATU/L which was initially dosed to the system would reach below the inhibition threshold of 1.0 mg-ATU/L after 10 days when 750 mg-COD/L of heterotrophs were present. From the kinetic model, an empirical formula to calculate a safe minimum ATU dose for the batch respirometric test was elaborated. The model also provided a modified experimental procedure to accurately estimate the initial heterotrophic biomass concentration in the sample and its specific decay rate based on IWA Activated Sludge Models.

Biofouling Mitigation by Chloramination during Forward Osmosis Filtration of Wastewater

Pre-concentration is essential for energy and resource recovery from municipal wastewater. The potential of forward osmosis (FO) membranes to pre-concentrate wastewater for subsequent biogas production has been demonstrated, although biofouling has also emerged as a prominent challenge. This study, using a cellulose triacetate FO membrane, shows that chloramination of wastewater in the feed solution at 3–8 mg/L residual monochloramine significantly reduces membrane biofouling. During a 96-h pre-concentration, flux in the chloraminated FO system decreased by only 6% and this flux decline is mostly attributed to the increase in salinity (or osmotic pressure) of the feed due to pre-concentration. In contrast, flux in the non-chloraminated FO system dropped by 35% under the same experimental conditions. When the feed was chloraminated, the number of bacterial particles deposited on the membrane surface was significantly lower compared to a non-chloraminated wastewater feed. This study demonstrated, for the first time, the potential of chloramination to inhibit bacteria growth and consequently biofouling during pre-concentration of wastewater using a FO membrane.

Anaerobic treatment of hydrothermally solubilised sugarcane bagasse and its kinetic modelling

The aim of this study was the evaluation of anaerobic treatment for the soluble organics generated from a steam-explosion pre-treatment of sugarcane bagasse. The batch analysis revealed that about 50% of the organics was possible to be degraded into methane whilst the rest was biologically inert and composed of mostly lignin. Based on the experiment a kinetic model composed of 14 kinds of soluble substances and 5 kinds of anaerobic microorganisms was developed. The model was used to simulate the process performance of a continuous anaerobic bioreactor with MLSS concentration at 2500-15,000mg/L. The simulation indicated that the bioreactor could receive the influent until 0.4kg-COD/kg-MLSS/d of loading without significant deterioration of methane conversion. By addition of powdered activated carbon, the rest of unbiodegradable soluble organics and dark brown colour in the effluent were removed to 840mg-C/L and 760 unit respectively at adsorption of 190mg-C/g-PAC and 1200unit/g-PAC.

Community and Proteomic Analysis of Anaerobic Consortia Converting Tetramethylammonium to Methane

Tetramethylammonium-degrading methanogenic consortia from a complete-mixing suspended sludge (CMSS) and an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors were studied using multiple PCR-based molecular techniques and shotgun proteomic approach. The prokaryotic 16S rRNA genes of the consortia were analyzed by quantitative PCR, high-throughput sequencing, and DGGE-cloning methods. The results showed that methanogenic archaea were highly predominant in both reactors but differed markedly according to community structure. Community and proteomic analysis revealed that Methanomethylovorans and Methanosarcina were the major players for the demethylation of methylated substrates and methane formation through the reduction pathway of methyl-S-CoM and possibly, acetyl-CoA synthase/decarbonylase-related pathways. Unlike high dominance of one Methanomethylovorans population in the CMSS reactor, diverse methylotrophic Methanosarcina species inhabited in syntrophy-like association with hydrogenotrophic Methanobacterium in the granular sludge of UASB reactor. The overall findings indicated the reactor-dependent community structures of quaternary amines degradation and provided microbial insight for the improved understanding of engineering application.