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Experimental Assessment of the Degradation of “Unbiodegradable” Organic Solids in Activated Sludge
Author(s) -
Friedrich M.,
Takács I.,
Tränckner Jens
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143016x14504669767779
Subject(s) - degradation (telecommunications) , activated sludge , waste management , environmental science , environmental chemistry , chemistry , environmental engineering , sewage treatment , engineering , telecommunications
In current process models activated sludge consists of biodegradable and unbiodegradable organic fractions. Recent evidence suggests that this approach may not be accurate because some of this “unbiodegradable” material may indeed be degradable. To improve sludge production predictions, it is important to know to what extent the “unbiodegradable” organic fraction is degradable. Assuming that volatile suspended solids (VSS) is a measure of the sum of biodegradable and unbiodegradable organic solids and the integral of the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) is representative of the biodegradable organics, the combination of these measurements can be used to predict the change of unbiodegradable organic solids within an aerobic digestion batch experiment. This procedure was used to estimate degradation rates of “unbiodegradable” VSS between 0.006 to 0.029 d −1 . The advantage of the proposed method is that the degradation rate can be determined directly based on measurements and relies on a limited number of assumptions.