Chemically enhanced primary sludge as an anaerobic co-digestion additive for biogas production from food waste

Abstract

In order to overcome process instability and buffer deficiency in the anaerobic digestion of mono food waste (FW), chemically enhanced primary sludge (CEPS) was selected as a co-substrate for FW treatment. In this study, batch tests were conducted to study the effects of CEPS/FW ratios on anaerobic co-digestion (coAD) performances. Both soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) and protease activity were decreased, with the CEPS/FW mass ratio increasing from 0:5 to 5:0. However, it was also found that the accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) was eliminated by increasing the CEPS/FW ratio, and that corresponding VFAs concentrations decreased from 13,872.97 to 1789.98 mg chemical oxygen demand per L (mg COD/L). In addition, the maximum value of cumulative biogas yield (446.39 mL per g volatile solids removal (mL/g VSsremoval)) was observed at a CEPS/FW ratio of 4:1, and that the tendency of coenzyme F420 activity was similar to biogas production. The mechanism analysis indicated that Fe-based CEPS relived the VFAs accumulation caused by FW, and Fe(III) induced by Fe-based CEPS enhanced the activity of F420. Therefore, the addition of Fe-based CEPS provided an alternative method for FW treatment.