Enhanced dewatering of waste-activated sludge by composite hydrolysis enzymes

The feasibility of composite hydrolysis enzymes in enhanced dewatering of waste-activated sludge (WAS) was verified in this study. A Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to explore the roles of different extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) fractions on WAS dewaterability. The results indicated that tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) was released into the liquid phase consistently during enzymatic hydrolysis to form soluble EPS (S-EPS) and loosely bound EPS and that the TB-EPS content was positively correlated with the capillary suction time of WAS. A kinetic analysis was carried out to gain further insights into the kinetic variation in TB-EPS removal. It was found that TB-EPS reduction fit a first-order kinetic model and that mild temperature (25-30 °C) and a slightly acidic condition were favorable for the improvement of enzyme activity. Solid phase extraction combined with UV-Vis spectroscopy analysis was used to characterize the processes of migration and transformation of the hydrophobic (HPO), transphilic and hydrophilic (HPI) fractions in EPS during the enzymatic process. The results revealed that HPO and HPI were mainly composed of PN and PS, respectively, and that the enzymatic hydrolysis could enhance the transformation of HPI from TB-EPS to S-EPS, which was the dominant mechanism of improving WAS dewaterability.