Evaluation of a microwave-heating anaerobic digester treating municipal secondary sludge

This work experimentally determined the effect of microwave irradiation on the anaerobic digestion of municipal secondary sludge in semi-continuous mesophilic digesters at hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 15, 10 and 5 days when microwaves were used as a heating source. A microwave-heating anaerobic digester (MHAD) was compared with a water-heating reactor (control). Biogas production increased in both digesters as the HRT decreased except for the control with a HRT of 5 days. Improvement in removal efficiency of volatile solid and biogas production of the MHAD relative to the control increased as the HRT decreased. The results show that the MHAD was more effective than the control in increasing mesophilic anaerobic biodegradability and biogas production treating secondary sludge.