Bacterial communities in different locations, seasons and segments of a dairy wastewater treatment system consisting of six segments

A dairy wastewater treatment system composed of the 1st segment (no aeration) equipped with a facility for the destruction of milk fat particles, four successive aerobic treatment segments with activated sludge and a final sludge settlement segment was developed. The activated sludge is circulated through the six segments by settling sediments (activated sludge) in the 6th segment and sending the sediments beck to the 1st and 2nd segments. Microbiota was examined using samples from the non-aerated 1st and aerated 2nd segments obtained from two farms using the same system in summer or winter. Principal component analysis showed that the change in microbiota from the 1st to 2nd segments concomitant with effective wastewater treatment is affected by the concentrations of activated sludge and organic matter (biological oxygen demand [BOD]), and dissolved oxygen (DO) content. Microbiota from five segments (1st and four successive aerobic segments) in one location was also examined. Although the activated sludge is circulating throughout all the segments, microbiota fluctuation was observed. The observed successive changes in microbiota reflected the changes in the concentrations of organic matter and other physicochemical conditions (such as DO), suggesting that the microbiota is flexibly changeable depending on the environmental condition in the segments. The genera Dechloromonas, Zoogloea and Leptothrix are frequently observed in this wastewater treatment system throughout the analyses of microbiota in this study.     

Occurrence, distribution, and potential influencing factors of sewage sludge components derived from nine full-scale wastewater treatment plants of Beijing, China

Millions of tons of waste activated sludge (WAS) produced from biological wastewater treatment processes cause severe adverse environmental consequences. A better understanding of WAS composition is thus very critical for sustainable sludge management. In this work, the occurrence and distribution of several fundamental sludge constituents were explored in WAS samples from nine full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) of Beijing, China. Among all the components investigated, active heterotrophic biomass was dominant in the samples (up to 9478 mg/L), followed by endogenous residues (6736 mg/L), extracellular polymeric substances (2088 mg/L), and intracellular storage products (464 mg/L) among others. Moreover, significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in composition profiles of sludge samples among the studied WWTPs. To identify the potential parameters affecting the variable fractions of sludge components, wastewater source as well as design and operational parameters of WWTPs were studied using statistical methods. The findings indicated that the component fraction of sewage sludge depends more on wastewater treatment alternatives than on wastewater characteristics among other parameters. A principal component analysis was conducted, which further indicated that there was a greater proportion of residual inert biomass in the sludge produced by the combined system of the conventional anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process and a membrane bioreactor. Additionally, a much longer solids retention time was also found to influence the sludge composition and induce an increase in both endogenous inert residues and extracellular polymeric substances in the sludge.     

A new process to improve short-chain fatty acids and bio-methane generation from waste activated sludge

As an important intermediate product, short-chain fatty acids(SCFAs) can be generated after hydrolysis and acidification from waste activated sludge, and then can be transformed to methane during anaerobic digestion process. In order to obtain more SCFA and methane,most studies in literatures were centered on enhancing the hydrolysis of sludge anaerobic digestion which was proved as un-efficient. Though the alkaline pretreatment in our previous study increased both the hydrolysis and acidification processes, it had a vast chemical cost which was considered uneconomical. In this paper, a low energy consumption pretreatment method, i.e. enhanced the whole three stages of the anaerobic fermentation processes at the same time, was reported, by which hydrolysis and acidification were both enhanced, and the SCFA and methane generation can be significantly improved with a small quantity of chemical input. Firstly, the effect of different pretreated temperatures and pretreatment time on sludge hydrolyzation was compared. It was found that sludge pretreated at 100°C for 60 min can achieve the maximal hydrolyzation. Further, effects of different initial p Hs on acidification of the thermal pretreated sludge were investigated and the highest SCFA was observed at initial p H 9.0with fermentation time of 6 d, the production of which was 348.63 mg COD/g VSS(6.8 times higher than the blank test) and the acetic acid was dominant acid. Then, the mechanisms for this new pretreatment significantly improving SCFA production were discussed. Finally,the effect of this low energy consumption pretreatment on methane generation was investigated.     

Reversibility of the structure and dewaterability of anaerobic digested sludge

The reversibility of the structure and dewaterability of broken anaerobic digested sludge(ADS)is important to ensure the efficiency of sludge treatment or management processes.This study investigated the effect of continuous strong shear(CSS)and multipulse shear(MPS)on the zeta potential,size(median size,d_(50)),mass fractal dimension(D_F),and capillary suction time(CST)of ADS aggregates.Moreover,the self-regrowth(SR)of broken ADS aggregates during slow mixing was also analyzed.The results show that raw ADS with d_(50) of 56.5μm was insensitive to CSS–SR or MPS–SR,though the size slightly decreased after the breakage phase.For conditioned ADS with d_(50) larger than 600μm,the breakage in small-scale surface erosion changed to large-scale fragmentation as the CSS strength increased.In most cases,after CSS or MPS,the broken ADS had a relatively more compact structure than before and d_(50) is at least 200μm.The CST of the broken fragments from optimally dosed ADS increased,whereas that corresponding to overdosed ADS decreased.MPS treatment resulted in larger and more compact broken ADS fragments with a lower CST value than CSS.During the subsequent slow mixing,the broken ADS aggregates did not recover their charge,size,and dewaterability to the initial values before breakage.In addition,less than 15%self-regrowth in terms of percentage of the regrowth factor was observed in broken ADS after CSS at average velocity gradient no less than 1905.6 sec~(-1).     

污泥干化协同焚烧的环境影响实例研究

发达国家污泥处置领域的主流工艺干化焚烧技术在中国的实践性较低,目前只有3%的市场占有率。究其原因,固然有技术、经济、国情的不同,人们对污泥干化焚烧产生二次污染的担忧造成的反建反烧的社会舆论也是阻碍垃圾焚烧工艺推广的重要原因。以苏州园区污泥干化焚烧项目为实例,从环境效益和环境排放两个方面展开论述,将环境排放分为干化和焚烧两个过程,从水、气、固和职业健康4方面研究干化焚烧过程造成的环境影响,并从中总结经验,为污泥干化协同焚烧项目的建设提供科学依据。     

江苏省电镀污泥产生现状及预测分析

分析了江苏省及各省辖市电镀污泥产生现状,并对电镀污泥产量进行了预测。通过调研分析发现江苏省电镀污泥产生情况呈现地区分布不均、产生规模小和行业集中的特点。利用灰色模型对全省及重点地区产生量进行预测发现,全省未来6年电镀污泥产生量增长率为8.32%,到2020年将达到23.94万t,低于2014年江苏省电镀污泥核准处置量39.92万t。     

城市污水处理厂厌氧消化污泥调理脱水性能研究

通过在污水厂实地取样,首先用阳离子聚丙烯酰胺(cationic polyacrylamide,CPAM)调理储泥池混合污泥与消化污泥,比较2种污泥投药前后的毛细吸水时间(capillary suction time,CST),发现消化污泥的CST明显小于储泥池的污泥。然后,检测这2种污泥的调理过程中Zeta电位的变化,并研究了挥发性悬浮物(volatile suspended solids,VSS)、总悬浮固体(total suspended solid,TSS)蛋白质、多糖以及胞外聚合物(extracellular polymeric substances,EPS)总量对脱水效果的影响。结果表明投药后消化污泥脱水性能优于混合污泥,最佳投药量为4‰~4.5‰;污泥中VSS/TSS越高,污泥脱水效果越差;污泥中蛋白质含量是影响污泥脱水效果的重要因素之一,其含量低于26.5%时,污泥压滤后含水率随蛋白质含量升高而升高,但当蛋白质含量高于26.5%时,无明显变化规律。     

基于能源利用的市政污泥处置技术的发展研究

市政污泥是污水生物处理过程中产生的城市固废,产量巨大、污染严重."十三五"期间中国污泥无害化处理任务艰巨,常规的污泥处理处置在二次污染、占地、能耗等方面具有局限,影响了在中国的广泛应用.污泥的能源化利用是兼具污泥量削减和新附加值产生的发展方向,本文围绕当前市政污泥能源化的研究、应用领域的发展加以讨论,探讨了污泥能源利用的潜能和存在的主要问题.     

Efficient treatment of azo dye containing wastewater in a hybrid acidogenic bioreactor stimulated by biocatalyzed electrolysis

In this study, a novel scaled-up hybrid acidogenic bioreactor(HAB) was designed and adopted to evaluate the performance of azo dye(acid red G, ARG) containing wastewater treatment. Principally, HAB is an acidogenic bioreactor coupled with a biocatalyzed electrolysis module. The effects of hydraulic retention time(HRT) and ARG loading rate on the performance of HAB were investigated. In addition, the influent was switched from synthetic wastewater to domestic wastewater to examine the key parameters for the application of HAB. The results showed that the introduction of the biocatalyzed electrolysis module could enhance anoxic decolorization and COD(chemical oxygen demand) removal. The combined process of HAB-CASS presented superior performance compared to a control system without biocatalyzed electrolysis(AB-CASS). When the influent was switched to domestic wastewater, with an environment having more balanced nutrients and diverse organic matters, the ARG, COD and nitrogen removal efficiencies of HAB-CASS were further improved, reaching 73.3% ± 2.5%, 86.2% ± 3.8% and 93.5% ± 1.6% at HRT of 6 hr, respectively, which were much higher than those of AB-CASS(61.1% ± 4.7%,75.4% ± 5.0% and 82.1% ± 2.1%, respectively). Moreover, larger TCV/TV(total cathode volume/total volume) for HAB led to higher current and ARG removal. The ARG removal efficiency and current at TCV/TV of 0.15 were 39.2% ± 3.7% and 28.30 ± 1.48 m A,respectively. They were significantly increased to 62.1% ± 2.0% and 34.55 ± 0.83 m A at TCV/TV of 0.25. These results show that HAB system could be used to effectively treat real wastewater.     

The biological effect of metal ions on the granulation of aerobic granular activated sludge

As a special biofilm structure, microbial attachment is believed to play an important role in the granulation of aerobic granular activated sludge (AGAS). This experiment was to investigate the biological effect of Ca^2 +, Mg^2 +, Cu^2 +, Fe^2 +, Zn^2 +, and K⁺ which are the most common ions present in biological wastewater treatment systems, on the microbial attachment of AGAS and flocculent activated sludge (FAS), from which AGAS is always derived, in order to provide a new strategy for the rapid cultivation and stability control of AGAS. The result showed that attachment biomass of AGAS was about 300% higher than that of FAS without the addition of metal ions. Different metal ions had different effects on the process of microbial attachment. FAS and AGAS reacted differently to the metal ions as well, and in fact, AGAS was more sensitive to the metal ions. Specifically, Ca^2 +, Mg^2 +, and K⁺ could increase the microbial attachment ability of both AGAS and FAS under appropriate concentrations, Cu^2 +, Fe^2 +, and Zn^2 + were also beneficial to the microbial attachment of FAS at low concentrations, but Cu^2 +, Fe^2 +, and Zn^2 + greatly inhibited the attachment process of AGAS even at extremely low concentrations. In addition, the acylated homoserine lactone (AHL)-based quorum sensing system, the content of extracellular polymeric substances and the relative hydrophobicity of the sludges were greatly influenced by metal ions. As all these parameters had close relationships with the microbial attachment process, the microbial attachment may be affected by changes of these parameters.