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An energy-efficient process for treatment of sewage sludge

T.R.Sreekrishnan, Mohsen Nosrati and Raghav Narayanan

Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Hauz Khas, New Delhi – 110 016, INDIA
(E-mail: sreekrishnan_t_r@hotmail.com)

Abstract: A new process technology has been evolved, based on laboratory-scale experimental studies, which addresses
the problems of (i) volatile solids reduction (ii) pathogen elimination and (iii) heavy metal removal from sewage
sludges with high level of energy and cost conservation. The new process envisages a two-stage, aerobic, biological
process. In the first stage, which operates in the batch mode, aerobic sludge digestion takes place at a temperature
of 55 – 60oC. The aerobically digesting sludge temperature is maintained at this value through the heat released by
the process itself. Experimental results show that this is possible by maintaining the initial concentration of
biodegradable solids in the sludge at a value not less than 20 g/l. Elemental sulfur is added to the system at the start
of the batch operation. The batch time is about 24 hours, during the initial 4-5 hours of which the sludge undergoes
aerobic digestion at a temperature of 55 – 60oC under auto-heated conditions. This was experimentally observed to
be sufficient enough to eliminate all indicator organisms. The temperature starts falling with reduction in the solids
concentration and this is accompanied by reduction in the sludge pH due to the activity of the autotrophic, thermophilic
thiobacillus sp. present in the sludge. At the end of the batch operation, the pH comes down to 4.5 – 5.0 and the
temperature, 45oC. This is then subjected to further treatment in a continuous process where the pH is maintained
at 2.0 and temperature at 45oC. The output from this second stage is a stabilized sludge with complete removal of
indicator bacteria and more than 98% of the heavy metals originally present in the sludge leached out. A crucial point
in the entire process is the development of a consortium of aerobic sulphur oxidizing microorganisms native to
municipal sewage sludge that is capable of reducing the pH of municipal sewage sludge from 7.0 to 4.8 at 60°C and
from 4.8 to 2.0 under mildly-thermophilic (45°C) temperatures.
Keywords: Aerobic sludge digestion, heavy metal leaching, indicator organism, thermophilic, thiobacilli,.

INTRODUCTION
Aerobic digestion of biological sludges could be done under mesophilic conditions (25 - 40C) as well as under
thermophilic conditions (45-75C). Thermophilic digestion is attractive due to its high rate of solids removal.
Also, under thermophilic conditions, pathogenic organisms are inactivated very effectively in a way that
stabilized sludge will be a processed and sterilized end product, safe for land disposal (Kabrik and Jewell
1982). However, heat is required for keeping thermophilic digesters at the desired operational temperature
range (normally at 55-65ºC). A very attractive approach to solve this high energy input requirement problem
is the auto-heated thermophilic process in which the digestion process can generate the energy required to keep
itself under the thermophilic temperature range. For an aerobic digestion process, autothermal conditions
could be achieved through the heat generated by the bio-oxidation energy released during the digestion process
(Kambhu and Andrews 1969). The amount of energy released through aerobic digestion is inherent and same
to both mesophilic and thermophilic digestions. However, the increased rate of degradation under thermophilic
conditions may enhance the feasibility of operating the process as an autothermal thermophilic aerobic
digestion (ATAD) process. This could happen when the heat released by the biological oxidation process
overcomes all the heat losses taking place from the digester (Gould and Drnevich 1978).
In addition to solids reduction and pathogen inactivation, the sewage sludge also needs to be free of high
concentrations of heavy metals normally associated with them. These are the heavy metals which were
originally present in the sewage, which got concentrated in the sludge during the course of the biological
treatment of the sewage.

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Bioleaching of metals involves a pH reduction as a result of a biological oxidation process. This biological oxidation
is usually by the oxidation of ferrous sulphate or elemental sulphur. The oxidation of elemental sulphur by Thiobacillus
thiooxidans and Thiobacillus thioparus produces sulphuric acid that can then solubilize the metal. T. Thioparus is
active at higher pH values, while T. thiooxidans is more active at lower pH values [US EPA(1986), Blais et al., (2004),
Chen and Lin (2001), Sreekrishnan and Tyagi (1996)], and thus thrives as increased amounts of sulphuric acid are
produced. The oxidation of ferrous sulphate by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans (now reclassified as Acidithiobacillus
ferrooxidans) produces ferric sulphate, which in turn can solubilize the metal. It has been shown that the oxidation
of elemental sulphur gives better microbial mineralization and is also more economical. In addition, this leaching
can be initiated at neutral pH, which means that sludge stabilization and bioleaching can be carried out
concomitantly [Blais et al (1992a), Blais et al.(1992b), Schooner and Tyagi(1996)]. The amount of metal leached is
determined primarily by the pH [Sreekrishnan et al (1993), Tyagi et al. (1993), Ryu et al.(2003)]. Therefore, to couple
the ATAD process to metal leaching, the metal leaching microbial consortia should also be thermophilic.

Materials and Methods

Undigested aerobic wastewater treatment sludge (secondary) was collected from one of the clarifier bottoms
from the Delhi Jal Board sewage treatment plant located at Okhla near New Delhi., India. The plant treats a
part of the sewage generated by Delhi city using activated sludge process. The sludge had a total solids
concentration of 8.0 g/l. Thickened secondary sludge samples, having total solids of 10 to 60 g/l (in increments
of 10 g/l) were generated from the original activated sludge through thickening and/or centrifugation.
An insulated glass digester (2.5 liters) was designed and set up for performing the thermophilic aerobic
digestion experiments in batch mode. The digester’s body was well insulated by a thick layer of industrial glass
wool, followed by a layer of thermocol. This was then covered with a layer of aluminum foil. Flexible tubings
(silicone rubber) used for connecting various units, were also insulated in a similar manner. Air or oxygen was
sparged into the digester contents through a diffuser having fine holes (1-2 mm in diameter). A gas circulator
was used to recycle the air/oxygen from the top of the digester and back to the digester through the sparger.
In each experiment, initially 1.5 liters of the digester volume was filled with sludge and the rest one liter was
allocated for air or pure oxygen. The rate of circulation of the gas was constant (1.5 l/min) and was enough
for mixing the liquid phase thoroughly. An air / oxygen (dry gas) cylinder followed by a regulator was attached
to the circulator’s suction side in order to refresh the recycling gas and enhance its oxygen concentration. An
accurately calibrated rotameter was used to measure the inlet rate of refreshing air/oxygen. A heating tape was
used to heat the digester and a wattmeter was used to measure the input electrical power. A temperature
indicator-recorder was used to record the digester’s temperature (± 0.1 ºC).
The rate of removal of biodegradable volatile suspended solids was considered to be first order with respect
to the concentration of biodegradable volatile suspended solids present at any instant with a reaction rate
constant of ‘k’ (Eckenfelder 1956; Benedek et al. 1972; Stein et al. 1973; Adams et al. 1974; Bhargava and
Datar 1988). For estimation of the reaction rate constant (k), sludges having total solid of 10 and 60 g/l were
digested aerobically at different temperatures (10 to 80 ºC) by streams of refreshing air (300 ml/min) and
pure oxygen (100 ml/min) for 4 or 5 days continuously.
In order to determine the actual amount of heat released during the aerobic biological oxidation of the sludge
solids, aerobic digestion of a number of the sludge samples having initial total solids concentrations of 10,
20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 g/l were investigated separately. The minimum amounts of aeration were applied in these
experiments. At each concentration, electrical power input was initially selected such that it provided a fixed
temperature of 55 ºC. Therefore, all digestion experiments were started at this temperature. The heat released
by the biological oxidation increases the sludge temperature from 55 ºC. The digester temperature increases
in accordance to the magnitude of initial volatile suspended solids available in the digesting sludge. Once the
digestible solids are exhausted, temperature comes back to 55 ºC again.
Experimental investigations of the removal of indicator organisms were performed separately for total coliforms
and fecal streptococci as standard pathogen indicators by using colony forming units (CFU) technique (APHA

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1992). Solids analysis (total solids, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, total volatile solids, and
volatile suspended solids) as well as chemical oxygen demand experiments were carried out according to the
Standard Methods (APHA, 1992).
A reactor of total volume 2l, working volume 1.5l was used for carrying out metal leaching and stabilization
studies. The reactor comprised a glass vessel with an attached condenser to decrease volume loss due to
evaporation. Aeration was adjusted to ensure sufficient agitation. A heated magnetic stirrer was used to control
temperature and ensure that no sulphur settled. Ninety millilitres of sludge was inoculated with 10 ml of the
corresponding acidophilic culture (mesophilic culture for mesophilic studies, mild-thermophilic culture for
mild-thermophilic studies and so on).

Results and Discussion

Batch experiments were conducted, at different temperatures, on aerobic digestion of sewage sludge having
different solids concentrations. A representative set of data for digestion carried out at a temperature of 60oC
using sludges having initial suspended solids concentrations of 10, 30 and 60 g/l is shown in Fig.1. Based on
similar data for aerobic digestion experiments conducted at different temperatures, the first order degradation
rate constant ‘k’ was evaluated.
45
TSo = 60 g/l
TSo = 30 g/l
37.5
TSo = 1 0 g/l

30
VSS (g/l)

22.5

15

7.5

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tim e (d)

Figure 1. Volatile suspended solids reduction with time during batch aerobic digestion at 60oC
The dependence of ‘k’ on temperature is shown in Fig.2 for sludges with initial volatile suspended solids
concentrations of 10 and 60 g/l. It can be seen that the degradation is the fastest in the temperature range
of 55 – 60oC. However, maintaining this high temperature, in spite of heat loss through the reactor surface
as well as latent heat loss to the water evaporating into the air/oxygen stream being sparged into the reactor
is a major energy consuming step. A possible way to overcome this is to use the heat released during the
aerobic digestion process to sustain this temperature so that the process becomes an ATAD process.
0.5
TSo = 60 g/l

0.4 TSo = 1 0 g/l

0.3
k (1 / d)

0.2

0.1

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Tem perature ( oC)

Figure 2. Variation of ‘k’ with temperature

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In order to assess the heat available from the digestion process, batch reactor experiments were carried out
where sludges with different initial volatile suspended solids concentrations were heated to a temperature of
55oC and then allowed to undergo aerobic digestion. The temperature profile inside the digesters were
monitored and are shown in Fig.3.

Figure 3. Digester temperature rise profiles with initial temperature controlled at 55oC.
It was seen that with increasing solids concentration, the duration for which the digester maintains itself at
an elevated temperature (above the datum of 55oC) increasd with initial VSS concentration. However, in none
of the cases did the temperature exceed 63oC. This was due to the fact that when the temperature reaches
63oC, any further increase in temperature starts inhibiting the aerobic digestion process, thereby resulting in
a lowering of the digester temperature. From this data, an energy balance exercise revealed that energy to the
tune of 16,000 to 17,000 Joules was released per gram of volatile suspended solid degraded.
Samples taken during the course of the batch digestion experiments were also analysed for their total coliform
and fecal streptococci concentration. This was in order to determine the effect of temperature on the elimination
of the indicator organisms. This data is summarized in Fig.4.
Expectedly, the time required for elimination of the indicator organisms decreased at higher digester
temperatures. In the 55-60oC range, complete removal of indicator organisms took place at less than 8 hours.
Based on the data shown in Fig.3, it was calculated that sludges with initial VSS concentrations of 20 g/l and
above could maintain the batch digesters at temperatures above 55oC under autoheated conditions for a time
span sufficient enough to ensure complete removal of all indicator organisms.

Figure 4. Time required for complete elimination of Indicator organisms at different temperautures.

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Metal bioleaching experiments were carried out using the sludge-indegenous sulfur oxidizing bacteria, consisting
predominantly of Thiobacillus thiooxidans and Thiobacillus thioparus. In an attempt to make these bacteria
grow at the thermophilic temperature range of 55-60oC, sludge samples were amended with 0.5% powdered
elemental sulfur and inoculated with enriched sulfur oxidizing culture. The pH profile with time is shown in
Tables 1, 2 and 3 for incubation at 30oC (mesophilic), 45oC (mildly thermophilic) and 60oC (thermophilic).

Table.1: pH profile under mesophilic condition

Table.2: pH profile under mildly thermophilic condition

Table.3. pH profile under thermophilic condition

While the pH came down to a value of 2.0 or less than 2.0 in the case of experiments at 30oC and 45oC, the
pH did not decrease beyond 4.8 or 4.9 in the case of experiments at 60oC. This trend was repeated for all the
batch experiments. From this, it was concluded that the less acidophilic Thiobacillus thioparus is capable of
growing at the thermophilic temperature of 60oC, but not the Thiobacillus thiooxidans. However, it is well
known that Thiobacillus thioparus alone cannot lower the pH to the value of 1.5 – 2.0 which is normally required
to leach out all the heavy metals present in the sewage sludge.
Based on the above experimental observations, a new process is envisaged where the sludge will initially be subjected
to autoheated aerobic digestion process in a batch reactor supplemented with elemental sulfur. During this stage,
the heat released by the sludge volatile solids will maintain the temperature in the 55 – 60oC range for 8 to 12 hours.
This period, as already seen, is sufficient enough to eliminate all the pathogens (assuming that pathogen reduction
will follow the same trend as indicator organisms). During this period, the less acidophilic Thiobacillus thioparus
will slowly reduce the sludge pH from the initial near neutral value to a value around 5.0. By this time, the sludge
solids also would have got reduced considerably so that the digester temperature will come down to around 45oC.
The second stage of the process could be a continuous process where the reactor pH is a constant 2.0. The incoming
digested sludge at a pH of around 5.0 will have its pH reduced to 2.0 by the Thiobacillus thiooxidans growing in this
reactor at a temperature around 45oC. This will result in the leaching of heavy metals from the sludge.

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CONCLUSION
The experimental results obtained in the laboratory indicates that it is possible to operate a two stage process
of sludge treatment where the first stage is a batch reactor at 55-60oC initially, with temperature falling
gradually to 45oC. The second stage is a continuous reactor operating at 45oC and pH 2.0. Such a process can
address the problem of sludge solids reduction, pathogen elimination and metal leaching.

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