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Harvesting and Disaggregation: An Overlooked Step in Biofilm Methods Research
Published on: April 22, 2022
Ultrasonic disintegration of biosolids for improved biodegradation
1Ultrawaves GmbH, Water and Environmental Technologies, Kasernenstrasse 12, 21073 Hamburg, Germany. nickel@ultrawaves.de
Abstract:
Biological cell lysis is known to be the rate-limiting step of anaerobic biosolids degradation. Shear forces generated by low frequency ultrasound can be used to disintegrate bacterial cells in sewage sludge. Thus, the quantity of dissolved organic substrate is increased. Consequently, the degradation rate and the biodegradability of organic biosolids mass are improved. Fundamental pilot-studies showed a significantly accelerated biosolids degradation with less digested sludge being produced and increased biogas production being attained. A full-scale ultrasound reactor system was developed for continuous operation under real life conditions on sewage treatment plants (STP).
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