Surfactant coupled sonic pretreatment of waste activated sludge for energetically positive biogas generation

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of dioctyl sodium sulphosuccinate (DOSS, a surfactant) on lysis rate of sludge and specific energy required for sonic pretreatment of waste activated sludge (WAS). Different ultrasonic power levels, WAS concentrations, DOSS dosages, and specific energy levels were used to compare pretreatment efficiencies. At an optimum time of 10min with ultrasonic power level of 160W, DOSS coupled sonic pretreatment resulted in better lysis rate (24.7%) of sludge than sonic pretreatment (17.6%). Biodegradability estimation through non-linear regression modeling revealed that DOSS coupled ultrasound pretreatment of sludge showed better biodegradability with higher hydrolysis constant (about 0.25d^-1) than sonic pretreatment (0.19d^-1). Nearly six times less energy was required for DOSS coupled ultrasound pretreatment compared to that required for sonic pretreatment. Therefore, DOSS coupled ultrasound pretreatment makes the pretreatment process energetically positive.