Rapid and efficient activated sludge treatment by electro-Fenton oxidation

Advanced oxidation process is one of the important process to improve the efficiency of activated sludge dewatering and digestion. In this study, electro-Fenton (EF) was investigated as a pretreatment method for improving activated sludge dewatering and disintegration in terms of specific resistance to filtration, volatile suspended solids removal and release of soluble organics. The morphology of sludge flocs and properties of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) were investigated to understand the involved mechanisms. The results showed that EF could increase the dewaterability of activated sludge effectively in 40-60 min. The size of sludge flocs decreased after EF treatment, but zeta potential was elevated to near zero and floc structure became coarser with bigger holes. EF could enhance the sludge floc disintegration, released protein and polysaccharide to soluble EPS fraction, and promote the humification process. The kinetic analysis further indicated that EF increased the pseudo first-order EPS solubilization rate. EF had high operational stability by retaining over 90% initial activity even after five repeated use of dewatering filtrate. This study provides a rapid and efficient solution for improving sludge dewaterability by electro-Fenton.