Application of biogas recirculation in anaerobic granular sludge system for multifunctional sewage sludge management with high efficacy energy recovery. (15th September 2021) - Zhao, Jiamin
Graphical abstract: Highlights: Biogas recirculation may create multifunctional granule AD system of sewage sludge. Biogas recirculation accelerates CH4 recovery rate from sludge by 31–44%. Simultaneous sludge stabilization and aggregation can be realized in this system. This system can improve net energy profit by 78–85% for sewage sludge treatment. Abstract: This study investigated the possibility of biogas recirculation-driven anaerobic granular sludge system for sewage sludge treatment, aiming to develop an energy sufficient and multifunctional anaerobic digestion (AD) system for sewage sludge with biogas upgrading, sludge stabilization and self-aggregation. Results show that biogas recirculation could enhance the CH4 production rate by 31–44% and shorten the lag-phase duration to 0.08–0.2 day with simultaneous increment of CH4 content (> 83% in this study). The reason is mainly associated with the stronger interspecies electron transfer under the biogas recirculation condition. In addition, 37–40% better dewaterability of the digested sludge was achieved, implying the occurrence of self-aggregation of microbial cells induced by biogas recirculation. Energy balance analysis reflects that this sewage sludge treatment system could enhance the net energy recovery by 78–85%. Moreover, almost no obvious influence was noticed on the seed granules' composition and properties. These findings suggest that the biogas recirculation-driven anaerobic granular sludge system could be a promising alternative for sewage sludge treatment, which can improve biogas quality and sludge dewaterability simultaneously towards sludge self-aggregation with no addition of other chemicals.