Comparison of different valent iron on anaerobic sludge digestion: Focusing on oxidation reduction potential, dissolved organic nitrogen and microbial community

This study compared effects of three different valent iron (Fe-0, Fe(II) and Fe(III)) on enhanced anaerobic sludge digestion, focusing on the changes of oxidation reduction potential (ORP), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), and microbial community. Under the same iron dose in range of 0-160 mg/L after an incubation period of 30 days (d), the maximum methane production rate of sludge samples dosed with respective Fe-0, Fe(II) and Fe(III) at the same concentration showed indiscernible differences at each iron dose, regardless of the different iron valence. Moreover, their behavior in changes of ORP, DON and microbial community was different: (1) the addition of Fe-0 made the ORP of sludge more negative, and the addition of Fe(II) and Fe(III) made the ORP of sludge less negative. However, whether being more or less negative, the changes of ORP may show unobservable effects on methane yield when it ranged from -278.71 to -379.80 mV; (2) the degradation of dissolved organic nitrogen, particularly proteins, was less efficient in sludge samples dosed with Fe-0 compared with those dosed with Fe(II) and Fe(III) after an incubation period of 30 d. At the same dose of 160 mg/L iron, more cysteine was noted in sludge samples dosed with Fe(II) (30.74 mg/L) and Fe(III) (27.92 mg/L) compared with that dosed with Fe-0 (21.75 mg/L); (3) Fe-0 particularly promoted the enrichment of Geobacter, and it was 6 times higher than those in sludge samples dosed with Fe(II) and Fe(III) at the same dose of 160 mg/L iron.

Automated summary

This study compared the effects of different valent iron on anaerobic sludge digestion and found that they had similar effects on methane production rate, but showed variations in ORP, DON, and microbial community changes.