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Changes of network structure and water distribution in sludge with the stratified extraction of extracellular polymeric substances

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Abstract

The water in sludge is trapped within the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) with gelatinous structure, greatly challenging the sludge deep dewatering. In this paper, the effect of the EPS viscoelasticity and the structural characteristics of sludge flocs on water distribution was revealed to provide a highly efficient approach in research on sludge dewatering. After biological, and physical method conditioning, the change of viscoelasticity and sludge network structure before/after EPS extraction was comprehensively explored, together with the sludge dewaterability and water distribution. The results suggested the proportion of capillary water and adsorption water carried in soluble EPS (S-EPS) was 59.17% and 40.83%, and that in tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) was 54.77% and 45.23%, respectively. By contrast, the capillary water in loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) accounted for as high as 99.99%. In comparison with raw sludge, adsorption water proportion in TB-EPS and S-EPS was reduced after lysozyme (LZM) or freezing-thaw conditioning, which was ascribed to reduction of EPS viscosity and the weakness of water adsorption capacity. Additionally, the sludge yield stress (τy) value first reduced and then increased with the extraction of EPS. Meanwhile, the consistency coefficient (k) also decreased from 4.23 Pa·sn to 0.006 Pa·sn and then slightly increased after LZM conditioning. This observation indicated the sludge system became sensitive to shearing, and its network structural strength as well as colloid elasticity first weakened and then slightly strengthened. In addition, after LZM or freezing-thaw conditioning, the sludge particle size significantly increased after TB-EPS extraction, while the sludge particle more easily absorbed water molecules, thereby increasing adsorption water and capillary water within the sludge flocs. This phenomenon also resulted in an increasing trend of capillary suction time (CST) after TB-EPS extraction, indicating the deterioration of sludge filtration performance.

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Funding

The current study was supported by the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (2016A020221011).

Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province,2016A020221011,Bingyun Li

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, School of Light Industry and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Feng Lin & Bingyun Li

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  1. Feng Lin
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  2. Bingyun Li
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Contributions

All authors made contributions to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were carried out by FL and BL. The first draft of the manuscript was completed by FL and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. The final manuscript was read and approved by all the authors.

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Correspondence to Bingyun Li.

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Lin, F., Li, B. Changes of network structure and water distribution in sludge with the stratified extraction of extracellular polymeric substances. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 48648–48660 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19075-4

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