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Effect of short-time aerobic digestion on bioflocculation of extracellular polymeric substances from waste activated sludge

  • Developments and Applications of Environmental Specimen Banks for Monitoring Emerging Contaminants
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Abstract

The effect of short-time aerobic digestion on bioflocculation of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) from waste activated sludge (WAS) was investigated. Bioflocculation of the EPS was found to be enhanced by 2∼6 h of WAS aerobic digestion under the conditions of natural sludge pH (about 7), high sludge concentration by gravity thickening, and dissolved oxygen of about 2 mg/L. With the same EPS extraction method, the total suspended solid content reduction of 0.20 and 0.36 g/L and the volatile suspended solid content reduction of 0.19 and 0.26 g/L were found for the WAS samples before and after aerobic digestion of 4 h. It indicates that more EPS is produced by short-time aerobic digestion of WAS. The scanning electron microscopy images of the WAS samples before and after aerobic digestion of 4 h showed that more EPS appeared on the surface of zoogloea by aerobic digestion, which reconfirmed that WAS aerobic digestion induced abundant formation of EPS. By WAS aerobic digestion, the flocculating rate of the EPS showed about 31 % growth, almost consistent with the growth of its yield (about 34 %). The EPSs obtained before and after the aerobic digestion presented nearly the same components, structures, and Fourier transform infrared spectra. These results revealed that short-time aerobic digestion of WAS enhanced the flocculation of the EPS by promoting its production.

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Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely acknowledge the supports provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51008218), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (0400219210), SRF for ROCS SEM, Shanghai Shuguang Tracking Program (10GG12), and 863 Program 2009AA062902.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Zhiqiang Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Zhiqiang Zhang, Jianfu Zhao & Siqing Xia

  3. School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, Shanghai Technical College of Urban Management, Shanghai, 200432, China

    Jiao Zhang

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  1. Zhiqiang Zhang
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  2. Jiao Zhang
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  3. Jianfu Zhao
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Correspondence to Zhiqiang Zhang.

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Responsible editor: Robert Duran

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Zhang, Z., Zhang, J., Zhao, J. et al. Effect of short-time aerobic digestion on bioflocculation of extracellular polymeric substances from waste activated sludge. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 1812–1818 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1887-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1887-3

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