Integrated treatment of municipal sewage sludge by deep dewatering and anaerobic fermentation for biohydrogen production

The increasing sludge generated in wastewater treatment plants poses a threat to the environment. Based on the traditional processes, sludge dewatered by usual methods was further dewatered by hydraulic compression and the filtrate released was treated by anaerobic fermentation. The difficulties in sludge dewatering were associated with the existence of sludge flocs or colloidal materials. A suitable CaO dosage of 125 mg/g dry sludge (DS) could further decrease the moisture content of sludge from 82.4 to 50.9 %. The filtrate from the dewatering procedure was a potential substrate for biohydrogen production. Adding zero-valent iron (ZVI) into the anaerobic system improved the biohydrogen yield by 20 %, and the COD removal rate was lifted by 10 % as well. Meanwhile, the sludge morphology and microbial community were altered. The novel method could greatly reduce the sludge volume and successfully treated filtrate along with the conversion of organics into biohydrogen.