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Enhanced dewaterability of waste activated sludge with Fe(II)-activated hypochlorite treatment

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Abstract

A novel method was explored to improve the waste-activated sludge (WAS) dewaterability using Fe(II) combined with calcium hypochlorite, and the possible mechanisms were investigated simultaneously. Capillary suction time (CST), specific resistance to filtration (SRF) of sludge, and water content (WC) of dewatered sludge cake were selected as the factors to evaluate the sludge dewaterability. The maximum reduction of WC (30.76%) was achieved under the optimal conditions of Ca(ClO)2 0.04 g/g total suspended solids (TSS), FeSO4·7H2O 0.097 g/g TSS, and pH 7.3, while the reduction of CST and SRF reached 91.24 and 99.47%, respectively. Three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix (3D-EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) showed that sludge dewaterability was mainly related to the degradation of tryptophan and tyrosine protein-like substances in sludge EPS. Economic analysis suggested Fe(II) combined with calcium hypochlorite treatment had greater potential on enhancing WAS dewaterability compared with the traditional sludge treatment.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (nos. 51779088, 51709104), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (nos. 2017JJ3148).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Xiaofei Zhu, Qi Yang, Xiaoming Li, You Wu, Lihua Hou, Jing Wei, Weixuan Zhang, Yu Liu, Chongyu Chen & Dongbo Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China

    Xiaofei Zhu, Qi Yang, Xiaoming Li, You Wu, Lihua Hou, Jing Wei, Weixuan Zhang, Yu Liu, Chongyu Chen & Dongbo Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control Technology, Hunan Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Changsha, 410004, China

    Yu Zhong

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  1. Xiaofei Zhu
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  2. Qi Yang
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  3. Xiaoming Li
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  4. Yu Zhong
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  5. You Wu
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  9. Yu Liu
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  11. Dongbo Wang
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Correspondence to Qi Yang or Xiaoming Li.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Zhu, X., Yang, Q., Li, X. et al. Enhanced dewaterability of waste activated sludge with Fe(II)-activated hypochlorite treatment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 27628–27638 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2829-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2829-x

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