• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2015

The aim of this research is to derive an optimum operating condition for the thermal solubilization equipment that is employed to increase concentration of soluble organic materials and to assess whether it would be possible to use the waste sludge generated by thermal solubilization reaction as an external carbon source in biological denitrification process. For the purpose, we have constituted a laboratory-size thermal solubilization equipment and have assessed thermal hydrolysis efficiency based on various reaction temperature and reaction time. We have also derived SDNR using the waste sludge generated by thermal solubilization reaction through a batch experiment. As a result of research, the highest thermal hydrolysis efficiency of about 42.8% was achieved at $190^{\circ}C$ of reaction temperature and at 90 minutes of reaction time. And when SDNR was derived using the waste sludge, the value obtained was $0.080{\sim}0.094\;g\;NO_3{^-}-N/g\;MLVSS{\cdot}day$, showing SDNR that is higher than that obtained by the results of existing researches that used common wastewater as an external carbon source. Accordingly, in view of the fact that food wastes vary quite a bit in characteristics based on the area they are generated from and seasonal change, it seems that a flexible operation of thermal solubilization equipment is required through on-going monitoring of food wastes that are imported to food wastes recycling facilities.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.559-567
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• 2014

Since the ocean dumping of organic wastes is prohibited under the London Convention, the need for land treatment of food waste leachate (FWL) has significantly been growing in recent years. This study was conducted to use thermal solubilization to turn FWL into a form that can easily be degraded during the anaerobic digestion process, thereby reducing the percentage of solids and increasing the production of methane. To derive the optimal operating conditions of thermal solubilization, a laboratory-scale reactor was built and operated. The optimal reaction temperature and time turned out to be $190^{\circ}C$ and 90 min, respectively. The BMP test showed a methane production of 465 mL $CH_4/g$ $COD_{Cr}$ and a biodegradation rate of 90.1%. The production of methane rose by about 15%, compared with no the application of thermal solubilization. To reduce the solid content of FWL and improve the methane production, therefore, it may be helpful to apply thermal solubilization to pre-treatment facilities for anaerobic digestion.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.117-126
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• 2000

Solubilization pretreatments were conducted to enhance the anaerobic digestion of the waste activated sludge. Four pretreatment techniques including heating, sonication freezing and thawing, and enzyme addition were employed to solubilize the waste activated sludge under various conditions. Thermal pretreatment by heating showed the highest efficiency compared with other methods, and freezing and thawing was confirmed as a feasible alternative of solubilization as well as the pretreatment of dewatering. There is a clear correlation between the solubilization efficiency of the waste activated sludge and the gas production. Batch digestion results showed the cumulative gas production as much as four times after thermal pretreatment as compared with that by the control sludge without pretreatment. As a result, hydrolysis or solubilization pretreatment might play a significant role in the high rate digestion of the waste activated sludge.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.5-13
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• 2022

The current environmental problem is that environmental pollution is accelerating due to the generation of large amounts of waste and indiscriminate consumption of energy. Fossil fuels, a representative energy production fuel, are burned in the process of producing energy, generating a large amount of greenhouse gases and eventually causing climate change. In addition, the amount of waste generated worldwide is continuously increasing, and environmental pollution is occurring in the process of waste treatment. One of the methods for simultaneously solving these problems is the energy recovery from and reduction of organic wastes. Sewage sludge generated in sewage treatment plants has been treated in various ways since ocean disposal was completely prohibited, but the amount generated has been continuously increasing. Since the sewage sludge contains a large amount of organic materials, it is desirable to recover energy from the sewage sludge and reduce the final discharged waste through anaerobic digestion. However, most of the excess sludge is a mass of microorganisms used in sewage treatment, and in order for the excess sludge to be anaerobically digested, the cell walls of the microorganisms must be destroyed first, but it takes a lot of time to destroy the cell walls, so high rates of biogas production and waste reduction cannot be achieved only by anaerobic digestion. Therefore, the pre-treatment process of solubilizing excess sludge is required, and the thermal solubilization process is verified to be the most efficient among various solubilization methods, and high rates of biogas production and waste reduction can be achieved by anaerobic digestion after destroying cell walls the thermal solubilization process. In this study, when pretreating TS 10% thickened excess sludge through a thermal solubilization system, a study was conducted on solubilization characteristics according to retention time and operating temperature variables. The experimental variables for the retention time of the thermal solubilization system were 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, and 120 minutes, respectively, while the operating temperature was fixed at 160℃. The soulbilization rates calculated through TCOD and SCOD derived from the experimental results increased in the order of 12.11%, 20.52%, 28.62%, and 31.40%, respectively. And the variables according to operating temperature were 120℃, 140℃, 160℃, 180℃, and 200℃, respectively, while the operating retention time was fixed at 60 minutes. And the solubilization rates increased in the order of 7.14%, 14.52%, 20.52%, 40.72%, and 57.85%, respectively. In addition, TS, VS, T-N, T-P, NH₄⁺-N, and VFAs were analyzed to evaluate thermal solubilization characteristics of thickened excess sludge. As a result, in order to obtain 30% or more solubilization rate through thermal solubilization of TS 10% thickened excess sludge, 120 minutes of retention time is required when the operating temperature is fixed to 160℃, and 170℃ or more of operating temperature is needed when the operating time is fixed to 60 minutes.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2014

The effect of thermal pretreatment conditions on hydrolysis characteristics of dairy manure and sawdust mixtures has been evaluated. Thermal pretreatment temperature varied between 35 and $120^{\circ}C$ and the period of the treatment changed between 30 and 1440min (24h). As thermal pretreatment temperature and duration increased, organic material solublization rates were improved. Maximum solubilizations of chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), carbohydrates, and volatile fatty acids(VFAs) were observed when dairy manure treated for one day at $120^{\circ}C$. Although one day treatment duration at $120^{\circ}C$ showed the highest SCOD, soluble carbohydrates, and VFAs concentration, its hydrolysis rate was only about 12%. The results reveal that the thermal pretreatment conditions tried in this study are not enough to solubilize the organic matter contained in dairy manure and sawdust mixtures. In order to maximize hydrolysis performance, the further research needs to determine the factors influences on organic material solubilization in addition to thermal pretreatment temperature and duration.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.20-29
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• 2014

The present study investigated the effects of thermal pre-treatment on the enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of waste activated sludge at varied TS concentration levels. The activated sludges were thermally oxidized for 30 minutes at $80{\sim}200^{\circ}C$ with varied TS concentrations (2%, 4% and 6%). and then, sludge characteristics, solubilization efficiency and methane production yield of thermally pre-treated sludges were analyzed. The higher the temperature in the thermal pre-treatment, the higher the concentration levels of dissolved matters such as $SCOD_{Cr}$, $NH_4{^+}$ and VFAs, which indicates that the thermal pre-treatment facilitates the hydrolysis and acid fermentation. Furthermore, the solubilization efficiency was increased in proportion to the temperature rise at all TS concentrations and was reached at 68.9%, 55.6% and 53.1%, respectively, at $200^{\circ}C$. In the BMP test of the pre-treated sludges, higher methane production yields were observed as 0.313. 0.314 and $0.299m^3\;CH_4/kg\;VS_{add}$ at the condition of TS 2% ($160^{\circ}C$), 4% ($160^{\circ}C$) and 6% ($180^{\circ}C$), respectively, and degradation rate was increased by 84%, 79% and 65% compared with non-pretreated waste activated sludge. These findings suggest the effectiveness of thermal pre-treatment of waste activated sludge for anaerobic biodegradable process.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.89-97
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• 2007

In this study, thermalpretreatment was used to solubilize organic matter contained in sewage sludge before acid fermentation. By thermal pretreatment, solubilization of particulate CODcr, carbohydrate and protein increased. By thermal treatment at $120^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes, CODcr solubilization efficiency of the primary sludge reached 8.3%. Meanwhile, for the secondary sludge, CODcr solubilization efficiency reached 16.5% because of high solubilization ratio of protein under the same pretreatment conditon. The results of anaerobic biodegradability test showed that both VFAs conversion ratio and hydrolysis rate of organic compounds in sewage sludge were improved by thermal pretreatment. Meanwhile, the optimum thermal pretreatment condition was varied with composition of organic compounds in sludge. In this study, the optimun thermal pretreatment condition of the primary sludge, containing high concentration of carbohydrate, was $80^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, for the secondary sludge, mainly composed of protein, the sludge treated at $120^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes showed the effective organic removal and VFAs production.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.103-109
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• 2010

Anaerobic digestion has been widely used for the treatment of sludge, which is generated from the municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, for its volume reduction and methane production. Many researches on sludge pre-treatment have been carried out in order to enhance the performance of anaerobic digestion by increasing the hydrolysis of sludge which is the rate limiting step of anaerobic digestion. In this study, the effect of pre-treatment on sludge hydrolysis(solubilization), methane production and sludge reduction by anaerobic digestion after thermal, ultrasonic, and thermal-alkali sludge treatment were compared. Thermal-alkali treatment showed 67 and 70% solubilization with municipal and industrial wastewater sludge, respectively, while ultrasonic treatment and thermal treatment gave similar solubilization efficiency of 40% or more. Methane content of the anaerobic digestion gas reached 45~70% and pretreated sludge gave higher methane content than the control sludge. Methane production of thermal, ultrasonic, and thermal-alkali pre-treatment gave 2.6, 2.7, 3.5 times of municipal control sludge and 3.5, 4.1, 4.2 times of industrial control sludge, respectively. Sludge reduction of pre-treated sludge after anaerobic digestion gave 5~19% point higher than that of control sludge, and thermal-alkali treatment showed higher reduction efficiency than thermal and ultrasonic treatment. The results proved that pre-treatment contributed significantly not only for the methane production but also for the cost reduction of sludge treatment and disposal, and thermal-alkali treatment gave the best performance for the sludge treatment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.815-824
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• 2011

In this study, a non-thermal plasma system was employed to simultaneously remove odorous compounds and organic sludge. The system consisted of two reactors; the first one was the non-thermal plasma reactor where ozone was produced by the plasma reaction and the ozone oxidized hydrogen sulfide, the model odorous compound, and then the ozone-laden gas stream was introduced to the second reactor where wasted sludge was disintegrated and solubilized by ozone oxidation. In this study, the gas retention time (GRT) and the hydraulic retention time (HRT) were changed in the two-reactor system, and the effects of GRT and HRT on reduction efficiencies of odor and sludge were determined. As the GRT increased, the ozone concentration increased resulting in an increasing efficiency of hydrogen sulfide removal. However, the overall ozone loading rate to the second sludge reactor was the same at any GRT, which resulted in an insignificant change in sludge reduction rate. When HRTs in the sludge reactor were 1, 2, 4 hours, the sludge reduction rates were approximately 30% during the four-hour operation, while the rate increased to 70% at the HRT of 6 hours. Nevertheless, at HRTs greater than 4 hours, the solubilization efficiency was not proportionally increased with increasing specific input energy, indicating that an appropriate sludge retention time needs to be applied to achieve effective solubilization efficiencies at a minimal power consumption for the non-thermal plasma reaction.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.186-193
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• 2017

Microwave (MW) is an effective method for solubilizing organic solids because it has thermal, non-thermal and ionic conduction effects by dielectric heating and high energy efficiency. In this study, we evaluated the application of MW to the solubilization of cattle manure and investigated the solubilization ratio of cattle manure by solid concentration, MW power and target temperature. And $H_2SO_4$ and NaCl were added to investigated the effects on the MW-assisted solubilization. Also, we evaluated the solubilization efficiency by biochemical methane potential(BMP) test according to the solubilization conditions. Maximum SCOD increment per energy supply was 70.5 mg $SCOD_{increased}/kJ$ at 12% of the solid concentration, MW power of 800 W and the target temperature of $40^{\circ}C$. And SCOD concentration went up 153.2% compared to the initial concentration. In the MW-assisted solubilization with $H_2SO_4$ and NaCl as chemical catalysts, SCOD concentration was increased by 36% and 22.7%, respectively, compared to the result of MW. The methane production was increased by 13.3% and 11.3% with the addition of $H_2SO_4$ and NaCl. Therefore, MW is an effective method for solubilization of cattle manure, and it is necessary to use chemical catalysts to increase the solubilzation efficiency.