The influence of the energy absorbed from microwave pretreatment on biogas production from secondary wastewater sludge

In this study, microwave treatment is analyzed as a way to accelerate the hydrolysis in anaerobic digestion of municipal wastewater sludge. The influence of the absorbed energy, power and athermal microwave effect on organic matter solubilization and biogas production has been studied. In addition, a novel method that considers the absorbed energy in the microwave system is proposed, in order to obtain comparable experimental results. The absorbed energy is calculated from an energy balance. The highest solubilization was achieved using 0.54 kJ/ml at 1000W, where an increment of 7.1% was observed in methane production, compared to the untreated sample. Using a higher energy value (0.83 kJ/ml), methane production further increased (to 15.4%), but solubilization decreased. No power influence was found when 0.54 was applied at 1000, 600 and 440W. Microwave heating was compared to conventional heating in two different experimental setups, providing similar methane yields in all cases. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.