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Mechanism Investigation of Excess Sludge Disintegration by Stirred Ball Mill—Utilized Transmission Electron Microscope Observation and Peptidoglycan Concentration Determination

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Abstract

The stirred ball mill (SBM) method is a common method applied in large-scale sludge disintegration. Many reports focus on the disintegration results of sludge or the influence of parameters on the anaerobic process of treated sludge, but there have been few studies on the mechanism of sludge disintegration by SBM. This study focused on the mechanism of sludge disintegration by the SBM method. The results show that the flocs and bacterial cell wall were well disrupted and that the cytoplasm flowed remarkably out of the cell. Although the size with the largest volume distribution was expected to decrease with increasing treatment time, the volume of particles with a size of 34.56–44.04 μm increased in the sample treated for 60 min. We observed a temperature increase in the reflocculation of the biomacromolecules. The maximal value of DDCOD was 18.6%, and the concentrations of proteins and nucleic acids reached peaks at 691.80 mg/L and 281.05 mg/L, respectively. The peptidoglycan concentration showed that only 25.4% of the cell wall was broken and dissolved into liquid. From the results, we show that SBM can effectively break flocs and bacterial cell walls, but the method has a low efficiency for breaking biomacromolecule fragments into the liquid phase.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21677030), Project of Shenyang Young and Middle-aged Science and Technology Innovation Talents (Grant No. RC18036) and the Set Sail Plan for Science and Technology Project of Shenyang (Grant No. 18-201-0-09).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Process Equipment and Environmental Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Northeastern University, 3-11, Wenhua Road, Heping District, Shenyang, 110004, China

    Sai Yao, Feng Ma, Baorui Liang & Tong Zhu

  2. Department of Pharmaceutical Toxicology, School of Pharmacy, China Medical University, Shenyang, 110122, China

    Liying Hao

  3. Dongyuan Environmental Technology Co. Ltd., Shenyang, 110004, China

    Youzhao Wang & Yuanhua Xie

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  1. Sai Yao
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Correspondence to Liying Hao or Tong Zhu.

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Sai Yao, Feng Ma, Baorui Liang, Youzhao Wang, Yuanhua Xie, Liying Hao, Tong Zhu have no competing interests to declare.

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Yao, S., Ma, F., Liang, B. et al. Mechanism Investigation of Excess Sludge Disintegration by Stirred Ball Mill—Utilized Transmission Electron Microscope Observation and Peptidoglycan Concentration Determination. Waste Biomass Valor 12, 6543–6554 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-021-01478-y

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