Enhancement of anaerobic digestion of sludge from Kraft pulp mill wastewater treatment using thermal hydrolysis

Abstract

In the present work, the biodegradation improvement after thermal hydrolysis of the sludge generated in the aerobic wastewater treatment of a cellulose industry was evaluated. Response surfaces are presented for the different variables tested -Biomethane Potential (BMP), methane production rate and Dissolved Organic Nitrogen (DON). The variation of kinetic parameters was also determined. Increases between 100 % and 228 % were obtained for the BMPs of thermally hydrolyzed biosludge compared to untreated biosludge. In addition, increases of up to 112 % for the methane production rate of thermally hydrolyzed substrate were obtained.