The Effect of an Aluminum Addition to the Single-Stage Thermophilic and Mesophilic Anaerobic Digestion Systems

Jongmin Kim¹

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.7 , Issue.3 , pp.20-23, Sep-2020

Online published on Sep 30, 2020

Copyright © Jongmin Kim . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Aluminum is widely used to remove soluble phosphorus in wastewater streams. However, its impacts on the performance of the anaerobic digestion systems are largely unknown. The recent Water Environment Research Foundation study (Document No. 03CTS9b) indicated that aluminum addition to the activated sludge system might improve the quality of the anaerobically digested sludge downstream. This study aimed to evaluate the benefits or drawbacks of additional aluminum to the performance of two anaerobic digestion systems that were operated under thermophilic (55 degrees Celsius) and mesophilic (37 degrees Celsius) conditions, respectively. The results indicated that aluminum addition up to 100 mg/L to the feed sludge could enhance solids removal in the mesophilic anaerobic digestion system while the solids removal in the thermophilic anaerobic digestion was adversely impacted by additional aluminum. Excess aluminum up to 300 mg/L did not deteriorate the stability of both digesters. Also, improved dewaterability was observed from the digested sludges of both systems with aluminum addition up to 300 mg/L to the feed sludge.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Aluminum, anaerobic digestion, volatile solids reduction, dewaterability

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