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Updated: Aug 30, 2026

Measuring Biomethane Potential of Food Scrap Waste Anaerobically Co-Digested with Waste-Activated Sludge Using Respirometry
Published on: April 26, 2024
Thermal-alkaline solubilization of waste activated sludge as a pre-treatment stage for anaerobic digestion
1Laboratory of Organic and Chemical Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou Strasse, Zographou, 157 00 Athens, Greece.
Abstract:
This work studied the hydrolysis kinetics and the solubilization of waste activated sludge under a medium range temperature (50-90 degrees C) and pH in the alkaline region (8-11), as a pretreatment stage for anaerobic digestion. The hydrolysis rate for the solubilization of volatile suspended solids (VSS) followed a first-order rate. A linear polynomial hydrolysis model was derived from the experimental results leading to a satisfactory correlation between the hydrolysis rate coefficient, pH, and temperature. At pH 11 and a temperature of 90 degrees C the concentration of the VSS was 6.82%, the VSS reduction reached 45% within ten hours and at the same time the soluble COD was 70.000 mg/l and the total efficiency for methane production 0.28 l of CH4 per g of VSS loading.
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