Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 667671

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Bioresource Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech

Anaerobic storage as a pretreatment for enhanced biodegradability

of dewatered sewage sludge
Huacheng Xu a, Pinjing He a,*, Guanzhao Wang a, Liming Shao a, Duujong Lee b
a
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, College of Environmental Science and Engineering,
Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, PR China
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Dewatered sewage sludge is often stored still before further processing and nal disposal. This study
Received 20 May 2010 showed that anaerobic storage of dewatered sewage sludge could hydrolyze organic matter from the
Received in revised form 6 August 2010 sludge matrix, and increase soluble organic acid content from 90 to 2400 mg/L and soluble organic
Accepted 10 August 2010
carbon content from 220 to 1650 mg/L. Correspondingly, the contents of proteins, celluloses and
Available online 14 August 2010
hemicelluloses were reduced by 29%. Applying anaerobic storage markedly enhanced the efciency
of the subsequent bio-drying process on stored sludge. Correspondingly, biogas and odor gas were
Keywords:
produced immediately after commencing the sludge storage. Anaerobic storage with odor control
Storage
Biodegradability
can be applied as a pretreatment process for dewatered sewage sludge in wastewater treatment
Dewatered sewage sludge plants.
Bio-drying 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 2. Methods

Sludge storage is a common practice in wastewater treat- 2.1. Sludge samples

ment plants (WWTP) before its further treatment and nal dis-
posal (Aarab et al., 2006). Sewage sludge stored under anaerobic
conditions leads to lysis of proteins and polysaccharides from
the sludge matrix (Nielsen et al., 1996). Lei et al. (2007) further
revealed that hydrolysis of extracellular polymeric substances
occurred during the initial phase of anaerobic storage. These
previous studies focused on storage of activated sludge mainly
collected at the sludge return tank. However, waste sewage
sludge is often chemically conditioned and dewatered before
storage to reduce its volume. Information on how anaerobic
storage affects dewatered sludge characteristics has not been
reported.
This study aimed at tracking changes in physical and chemical
properties of conditioned and dewatered sludge during anaerobic
storage. Bio-drying is a process closely resembling aerobic com-
posting (Zhang et al., 2008) and has potential for effective sludge
post-treatments. In this work the potential use of anaerobic stor-
age as a pretreatment stage to enhance bio-drying efciency was
demonstrated.
Dewatered sludge samples were collected from a WWTP in
Shanghai, China, which deals with 75 000 m3/d of wastewater
(93% domestic and 7% industrial) using an anaerobicanoxicoxic
process. Excess sludge from the WWTP was conditioned with cat-
ionic polyacrylamides (PAM) (molecular weight of 6  106) and
then dewatered by centrifugation (1500g). The characteristics of
the fresh, dewatered sludge are listed in Table 1.
2.2. Anaerobic storage of dewatered sludge
A total of thirteen 1500-ml glass asks were used, each loaded
using 800 g of the dewatered sludge sample (Table 1). Air in the
ask was rst suck out using a vacuum pump (YZ1515, Hebei,
China) and then nitrogen gas (N2) was lled in to establish an
anaerobic atmosphere. Each ask was connected to a 1-L gas bag
and placed in an incubator (SPX-250B, Shanghai, China) at 35 C.
At each time point one ask was randomly sampled for sample col-
lection and analysis.

2.3. Bio-drying of sludge

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 21 65986104. Bio-drying tests of sludge were performed in two column reac-
E-mail address: solidwaste@tongji.edu.cn (P. He). tors of 1200 mm in height and 400 mm in internal diameter (Zhang

0960-8524/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.08.036
668 H. Xu et al. / Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 667671

Table 1 was determined with an element analyzer (vario EL III, Elementar,

Characteristics of dewatered sludge sample. German). Methane and CO2 were analysed by gas chromatography
Parameter Concentration Parameters Concentration (GC-9800, Shanghai, China), and the volatile sulfur compounds
pH 8.0 0.0 Hemicellulose (% DM) 17.5 0.5 (VSCs) were detected by pre-concentrating an 80-ml gas sample
Water content (%) 82.6 0.3 Lignins (% DM) 10.7 1.9 in a preconcentrator (Entech 7100A instrument) and subsequently
c a
VS (% DM ) 69.2 0.2 TOCb (% DM) 35.6 0.1 by analyzing the contents using a gas chromatography/ame ioni-
d
Proteins (% DM) 37.2 0.1 TN (% DM) 6.3 0.0 zation detector (GC/FID) (GC-450, Varian, USA).
Polysaccharides (% DM) 5.1 0.3 C/N 5.7
Celluloses (% DM) 3.6 0.2
Sludge biodegradability was measured by the cumulative con-
sumption quantity of oxygen during a 4 d incubation (Lesteur
a
DM: dry matter. et al., 2009; Shao et al., 2009). Briey, 10 g of dewatered sludge col-
b
Total organic carbon.
c lected was incubated in a sealed bottle at 35 C with no inoculum.
Volatile substances.
d
Total nitrogen. The air in the bottle was deated daily and replaced with ambient
air. The oxygen concentration of the air sample was determined
with an oxygen analyzer (CYS-1, Xuelian Co., China).
et al., 2008). A perforated bafe with 2-mm mesh was located at
100-mm height to support the wastes and to facilitate aeration 3. Results and discussion
efciency. The inlet gas was introduced from the bottom of each
column and outlet gas was discharged from the top. 3.1. Sludge biodegradability during anaerobic storage
Thirty kg of fresh dewatered sludge was mixed with 4 kg of
straw (23 mm in length) and fed into column A with air aeration. The oxygen consumption rates for dewatered sludge increased
In column B, the dewatered sludge was stored for 4 d without aer- from the initial 240 to 320 mg/g DM at h 48 (Fig. 1), indicating
ation, and then mixed with straw for aeration. The air ow rate was an improved sludge biodegradability during initial storage. The
maintained at 0.044 m3/kg mixture/h with 10/20 min on/off venti- oxygen consumption rate then gradually decreased to about
lation frequency. The mixture was manually turned every 2 d. 170 mg/g DM at the end of the test (240 h), probably being attrib-
utable to the declining bioactivity of aerobic bacteria in an anaer-
2.4. Analytical methods obic environment. The rst-day oxygen consumption was 98 mg/
g DM for the fresh dewatered sludge (with no anaerobic storage),
Contents of water and VS were determined using Standard while it reduced to 10 mg/g DM at h 60 and remained relatively
Methods (APHA, 1989). Water-soluble organic matter was ex- constant from that time on.
tracted with distilled water (1:10 w/v) for 24 h in a horizontal sha-
ker at room temperature (Shao et al., 2009). The extract ltered
through a 0.45-lm polyester lter was determined for its organic
carbon (TOC-V, Shimadzu, Japan) and NH4+-N content (Kjeltec
8400, Foss, Denmark), and that through a 0.22-lm polyester lter
was measured for its organic acid contents (LC-20AD, Shimadzu,
Japan). The pH was measured in a 1:5 water soluble extract via a
PHS-2F meter, and the PAM content was determined in a 1:20
water soluble extract using the starchcadmium method (Wen
et al., 2010). The content of proteins in samples was determined
by Kjeldahl nitrogen analyzer (Kjeltec 8400, Foss, Denmark); and
that of polysaccharides by anthrone method with glucose as the
standard (Gaudy, 1962). The concentrations of celluloses, hemicel-
luloses and lignins in collected samples were measured on the ba-
sis of neutral detergent ber, acid detergent ber and ash contents
of samples (Faithfull 2002). Elemental composition (C, N and H)

Fig. 1. Variations of oxygen consumption during anaerobic storage. (1st, 2nd, 3rd
and 4th: oxygen consumption during the rst, second, third and fourth day, Fig. 2. Evolutions of (a) organic acids/pH and (b) organic carbon in water-
respectively). extractable solution during anaerobic storage.
 H. Xu et al. / Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 667671
Fig. 3. Evolutions of (a) VS/water contents, (b) brous substances, (c) proteins/polysaccharides, and (d) elemental composition during anaerobic storage.
3.2. Organic acids and organic carbon in water-extractable solution
The total concentrations of organic acids increased with
increasing storage time (Fig. 2a). In phase 1 (<24 h), only lactic,
acetic and propionic acids were presented, with acetate acid being
the principal metabolite. In phase 2 (24120 h), organic acids,
including lactic, acetic, propionic, butyric and iso-butyric acids
were detected and their sums ranged 7401270 mg/L as acetic
acid. After 48 h of storage, lactic acid was undetected while acetic
acid again became the predominant organic acid. In phase 3 (120
240 h), lactic, acetic, propionic, butyric, iso-butyric and iso-valeric
acids were presented and their nal total concentration was
2680 mg/L as acetic acid. Lactic acid gradually increased and nally
accounted for 30% of the total organic acid concentration, while
concentrations of the other organic acids remained almost un-
changed in phase 3. The change in solution pH was reversely cor-
related with organic acid content, i.e., accumulation of total
organic acids lowered pH, and vice versa (Macias et al., 2008).
The soluble organic carbon (Fig. 2b) rapidly increased from 220
to 980 mg/L in the rst 36 h of storage, and then slowly increased
to 1650 mg/L by the end of test. The hydrolysis of particulate or-
ganic matters mainly occurred in the initial phase of storage (Wang
et al., 2002).
3.3. Evolutions of component and elemental compositions
The VS contents were slightly reduced from 69.2% to 65.4%
while water contents slightly increased from 82.6% to 84.7% during
anaerobic storage (Fig. 3a). The cellulose and hemicellulose
669
concentrations decreased from 3.6% to 1.4% and 17.5% to 8.0%,
respectively, while the lignin concentration remained unchanged
(Fig. 3b). Contents of protein decreased from 38.3% to 35.3%, while
that of polysaccharides remained at about 5% (Fig. 3c). Organic
matters can be fractionated into easily biodegradable compounds
(proteins and polysaccharides) and poorly biodegradable com-
pounds (celluloses, hemicelluloses and lignins) (Lesteur et al.,
2009). Our results showed that 5060% of celluloses and hemicel-
luloses could be degraded by storage, in contrast to the recommen-
dation by Lesteur et al. (2009).
Elemental composition analysis (Fig. 3d) showed that C and N
concentrations decreased by 1.1% and 0.45%, respectively, while
H concentration remained at about 5.4% during anaerobic storage.
The C/N ratio remained approximately constant (5.76.0).
The PAM concentration in water-extractable solution sharply
increased from 51 to 300 mg/L within 24 h of anaerobic storage
(Fig. 4), indicating the breakdown of the PAM network. Then
PAM concentration gradually decreased, signaling the partial deg-
radation of free PAM (Chang et al. 2001). Combining with Figs. 1
and 4, breakdown of the PAM network may reduce mass transfer
resistance to oxygen (Chatellier et al., 2001; Chu et al., 2005) and
improved sludge biodegradability.
3.4. Enhanced bio-drying process
The aerobic bio-drying process of dewatered sludge with a pre-
anaerobic storage stage reached a higher bed temperature (75 C)
than that without a pre-anaerobic storage phase (64 C; Fig. 5a).
Fig. 5(b) and (c) depict the changes in biodegradability and VS
670 H. Xu et al. / Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 667671
Fig. 4. Variation of PAM concentration in water-extractable solution during
anaerobic storage.
contents of bio-dried sludge with and without anaerobic storage.
The bio-drying reduced the sludge biodegradability of sludge, with
or without anaerobic pretreatment, to 39% and 47%, respectively.
At the end of bio-drying, the AT4 value of sludge with anaerobic
storage was 90 mg/g DM, while that with no storage was
130 mg/g DM. The nal VS contents of the bio-dried sludge with
and without anaerobic storage were 58% and 62%, respectively.
These observations suggested that anaerobic storage enhanced
Fig. 5. Variations of temperature (a), biodegradability (b) and VS contents (c) in two columns during bio-drying tests. Note: Biodegradability was determined by the oxygen
consumption during 4 days.
the efciency of the subsequent bio-drying process and promoted
the biostability of nal products. The hydrolysis of organic matter
from sludge matrix (Fig. 2) and the breakdown of the PAM network
(Fig. 4) provided readily available substrates for aerobic strains,
like that occurred in the composting process (Banegas et al.,
2007; Marco et al., 2004).
3.5. Emissions of biogas and odors during anaerobic storage
Biogas production commenced immediately after commencing
the test (Fig. 6a). The total cumulative biogas produced in the
240-h test was 3100 ml (22.7 L/kg DM). Daily production rate of bio-
gas peaked at 940 ml (6.75 L/kg DM) in the rst-day, and then grad-
ually fell to a low level of 48 ml (0.34 L/kg DM) at the end of test. The
methane production from the dewatered sludge in this experiment
was only 20% of the total gas collected (81 L/kg VSremoved), much
lower than that reported by Bujoczek et al. (2000) (534548 L/
kg VSremoved). The low methane productivity herein noted might
be due to the low solids content with brous substances or to the
inhibitory effects of lactic acids and ammonium (Bujoczek et al.,
2000; Fujishima et al., 1999; Macias et al., 2008; Zhu et al., 2009).
In addition, CO2 accounted for 4060% of the total biogas during
the storage.
Methyl mercaptan and methyl aether were noted at the start of
storage, and their emission rates decreased dramatically in subse-
quent tests (Fig. 6b). Hydrogen sulde emission also commenced,
but attained the highest concentration of 688 mg/m3 at h 48. The
emission of dimethyl disulde was minimal (02 mg/m3). Methyl
 H. Xu et al. / Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 667671
Fig. 6. Emissions of (a) biogas and (b) volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) during anaerobic storage.
mercaptan was revealed to be the main VSCs during initial storage
(<36 h), while hydrogen sulde became the main VSCs in the sub-
sequent storage phase (> 36 h).
4. Conclusions
Anaerobic storage of dewatered sludge improved its biodegrad-
ability, probably owing to hydrolysis of organic matter and break-
down of the PAM network to release soluble substrates for aerobic
strains. The contents of proteins, celluloses and hemicelluloses
were reduced by 29% during storage. Pre-stored dewatered sludge
produced 11 C higher bed temperature in bio-drying test than the
sludge not pre-stored.
The improvement of sludge biodegradability during anaerobic
storage was accompanied with emission of disturbing VSCs. Since
VSCs emission inevitably occurs somewhere in the sludge manage-
ment train, odor control can be applied at the storage tank to re-
lease its pollution risk. Anaerobic storage with odor control
presents a promising process to enhance sludge biodegradability
with minimal nuisance potential.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of
China(20977066), the National Key Project for Water Pollution Con-
trol (2008ZX07316-002) and the Specialized Research Found for
Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (200802470029).
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