A lab-scale Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) was applied to treat a primary sludge taken from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. In this experiment, acidogenic reaction was promoted by operating the ABR with short hydraulic retention time (HRT) to produce sufficient volatile fatty acids (VFA) instead of production of methane. The performance of ABR on the VFA production and total solids reduction was observed with different operating conditions with 2, 4, 6, and 8 days of HRT. Corresponding organic loading rates were 6.7, 3.4, 2.2, and 1.6 kgCODcr /m3·day. As HRT increased the removal rate of TCOD was also increased (82.5, 84.2, 96.9, and 95.9 % in average for HRT of 2, 4, 6, and 8 days, respectively) because the settlement of solids was enhanced in the baffle by the decrease of upflow velocity. At HRT of 2 days the average concentration of VFA in the effluent was measured at 1,306±552 mgCOD/L corresponding to 107 % increment as compared to the VFA concentration in the influent. However, as HRT increased VFA concentraiotn was decreased to 143±552 mgCOD/L at HRT of 8 days. The reduction rates of total solids were 12.2, 26.5, 24.8, and 43.0 % for HRT of 2, 4, 6, and 8 days. As HRT increased the hydrolysis of organic particulate matters in the reactor was enhanced due to the increasing of solids retention time in the baffle zone with low upflow velocity in long HRT condition. Consequently, we found that a primary sludge became a good source of VFA production by the application of ABR process with HRT less than 4 days and the 12-26 % of total solids reduction was expected at these conditions.

This study evaluated the biochemical methane potential (BMP) of primary sludge, secondary sludge, and food waste in batch anaerobic mono-digestion tests, and investigated the effects of mixture ratio of those organic wastes on methane yield and production rate in batch anaerobic co-digestion tests, that were designed based on a simplex mixture design method. The BMP of primary sludge, secondary sludge and food waste were determined as 234.2, 172.7, and 379.1 mL CH4/g COD, respectively. The relationships between the mixing ratio of those organic wastes with methane yield and methane production rate were successfully expressed in special cubic models. Both methane yield and methane production rate were estimated as higher when the mixture ratio of food waste was higher. At a mixing ratio of 0.5 and 0.5 for primary sludge and food waste, the methane yield of 297.9 mL CH4/g COD was expected; this was 19.4% higher than that obtained at a mixing ratio of 0.3333, 0.3333 and 0.3333 for primary sludge, secondary sludge, and food waste (249.5 mL CH4/g COD). These findings could be useful when designing field-scale anaerobic digersters for mono- and co-digestion of sewage sludges and food waste.

하수처리시설의 방류수 수질기준은 계속적으로 강화되고 있으며, 이러한 기준을 충족시키기 위해 다양한 공법을 적용하려는 노력들이 증가하고 있다. 지금까지는 질소, 인 처리를 목적으로 활성슬러지 공법을 많이 적용해왔지만, 활성슬러지 공법의 경우 용존산소 및 온도 유지, 미생물의 생장에 필요한 탄소원이 부족할 경우 추가적인 메탄올 공급의 필요 등과 같은 문제점들을 가지고 있어 대안책이 필요한 상황이다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 응집제 주입을 통해 유기물 뿐만 아니라 질소, 인 등을 제거하여 활성슬러지 공법을 대체할 수 있는 응집-침전 1차 처리(Chemically enhanced primary treatment, CEPT)의 최적화 과정을 진행하였으며, 추가적으로 CEPT 슬러지를 이용하여 혐기성 소화를 진행하였을 때 메탄 생성효율에는 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 확인하고자 하였다. 먼저 문헌조사를 통해 총 7개의 후보군(FeCl2, FeCl3, FeSO4, PACl, Al2(SO4)3, 키토산, glucan)을 선정하였으며, jar-test를 통해 응집제로써의 적용가능성 및 최적 주입량을 확인하였다. Jar-test의 경우 광주 제 1하수처리장으로 들어오는 하수 원수 500ml를 이용하여 진행하였으며, 급속교반(150rpm, 1분), 완속교반(40rpm, 10분), 침전(10분) 순으로 진행한 뒤 상징액을 통해 저감효과를 확인하였다. 90% 이상의 탁도 저감효과를 보인 FeCl3, PACl, Al2(SO4)3 대상으로 CEPT 슬러지를 제작하여 혐기성 소화를 진행하였다. jar-test에서는 PACl이 응집제 주입량 대비 가장 높은 탁도저감효과를 보인 반면, 혐기성 소화 공정에서는 PACl을 이용하여 제작한 CEPT 슬러지의 메탄 발생효율이 가장 낮고, FeCl3를 주입한 경우에 가장 메탄발생효율이 높은 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 PACl의 Al 성분이 미생물의 생장을 저해한 반면, FeCl3의 경우에는 Fe3+가 Fe2+로 환원되는 과정에서 유기물로부터 H+를 받아 유기물의 분해속도를 촉진시켰기 때문인 것으로 추측된다.