In this study, a process that combines the mesophilic anaerobic digestion (MAD) process with thermophilic aerobic digestion (TAD) for high-strength food wastewater (FWW) treatment was developed to examine the removal of organic matter and methane production. All effluent discharged from the MAD process was separated into solid and liquid portions. The liquid part was discarded and the sludge part was passed to the TAD process for further degradation. Then, the digested sludge from the TAD process was recycled back to the MAD unit to achieve low sludge discharge from the combined process. The reactor combination was operated in two phases: during Phase I, 40 d of total hydraulic retention time (HRT) was applied; during Phase II, 20 d was applied. HRT of the TAD process was fixed at 5 d. For a comparison, a control process (single-stage MAD) was operated with the same HRTs of the combined process. Our results indicated that the combined process showed over 90% total solids, volatile solids and chemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies. In addition, the combined process showed a significantly higher methane production rate than that of the control process. Consequently, the experimental data demonstrated that the combined MAD-TAD process was successfully employed for high-strength FWW treatment with highly efficient organic matter reduction and methane production.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
February 21 2014
Combined mesophilic anaerobic and thermophilic aerobic digestion process for high-strength food wastewater to increase removal efficiency and reduce sludge discharge
H. M. Jang;
H. M. Jang
1School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31, Hyoja-dong, Pohang 790-784, South Korea
Search for other works by this author on:
S. K. Park;
S. K. Park
2Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31, Hyoja-dong, Pohang 790-784, South Korea
Search for other works by this author on:
J. H. Ha;
1School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31, Hyoja-dong, Pohang 790-784, South Korea
E-mail: jeonghha@postech.ac.kr
Search for other works by this author on:
J. M. Park
J. M. Park
3Division of Advanced Nuclear Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31, Hyoja-dong, Pohang 790-784, South Korea
Search for other works by this author on:
Water Sci Technol (2014) 69 (8): 1768–1774.
Article history
Received:
November 05 2013
Accepted:
January 14 2014
Citation
H. M. Jang, S. K. Park, J. H. Ha, J. M. Park; Combined mesophilic anaerobic and thermophilic aerobic digestion process for high-strength food wastewater to increase removal efficiency and reduce sludge discharge. Water Sci Technol 1 April 2014; 69 (8): 1768–1774. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2014.050
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.
Impact Factor 2.430
CiteScore 3.4 • Q2
13 days submission to first
decision
1,439,880 downloads in 2021