An understanding of sludge rheology during anaerobic digestion can improve digester performance, particularly with regards to mixing. However, the “black box” nature of digesters limits the knowledge on sludge flow behaviour, once it enters the digester. A study on the flow properties (i.e. apparent viscosity and yield stress) as well as the yielding and restructuring behaviour of primary, seco...

We report, for the first time, extensive biologically mediated phosphate removal from wastewater during high-rate anaerobic digestion (AD). A hybrid sludge bed/fixed-film (packed pumice stone) reactor was employed for low-temperature (12°C) anaerobic treatment of synthetic sewage wastewater. Successful phosphate removal from the wastewater (up to 78% of influent phosphate) was observed, mediate...

Aerobic granular sludge was cultivated adopting internal-circulate sequencing batch airlift reactor. The contradistinctive experiment about short-term membrane fouling between aerobic granular sludge system and activated sludge system were investigated. The membrane foulants was also characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy technique. The results showed that the aerobic g...

Dewatering of sewage sludge is an important part of proper sludge management practice. It is becoming a more challenging issue for water industries as new regulations on sludge disposal are being imposed. In this paper, the application of mechanical thermal expression (MTE) to dewater sewage sludge and the conditioning of sludge by mixing with brown coal are investigated. Raw sludge, sludge flo...

  Endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) as active biological compounds can pose a threat to the environment through acute and chronic toxicity in organisms, accumulation in the ecosystem, and loss of habitats and biodiversity. They also have a range of possible adverse effects on environmental...

This is a literature review for the year 2015 and contains information specifically associated with suspended growth processes including activated sludge, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket, and sequencing batch reactors. The review encompasses modeling and kinetics, nutrient removal, system design and operation. Compared to past reviews, many topics show increase in activity in 2015. These includ...

The recent United Kingdom ban on the disposal of sewage sludge at sea has led to the prediction that land application of sludge will become more widespread. The positive aspect of recycling nutrients may, however, be offset by the risk of contamination by heavy metals that are frequently present in sludge. The environmental impact of applying metal-rich sewage sludge to agricultural land was, t...

Sludge production from wastewater treatment process is high, and the disposal of excess sludge will be forbidden in a near future, thus increased attention has been turned to look into potential technology for sludge reduction. The study attempts to review alternative sludge disposal methods, including anaerobic digestion, aerobic digestion and landfills. In these sludge processes, excess sludg...

(Hydro)thermal treatments of sewage sludge is a promising option that can simultaneously target safe waste disposal, energy recovery, and nutrient recovery/recycling. The speciation of phosphorus (P) in sludge is of great relevance to P reclamation/recycling and soil application of sludge-derived products, thus it is critical to understand the effects of different treatment techniques and condi...

The mechanical properties of dewatered, anaerobically digested sewage sludge were determined from soil laboratory tests. The sludge material is largely composed of organic clay sized-particles, a sizable fraction of which is in an active state of biological digestion which can continue over many years under field conditions. Moderately digested sludge material was found to have a typical specif...