Hydrolysis of waste activated sludge from pulp and paper mills : effect on dewatering properties and biogas potential by utilizing existing side streams

Abstract: A big challenge within pulp and paper mills is the large quantities of waste activated sludge (WAS) that is produced during the wastewater treatment. The WAS is made up of biological cells and extra polymeric substances (EPS) and can bind a large amount of water causing difficulties to dewater the WAS. This study aimed to determine how to improve the dewatering properties of the WAS by using hydrolysis. Hydrolysis will cause the cells to disrupt and the bound water in the cells and the water trapped by the EPS can be released. Specifically, this study investigated what impact hydrolysis with heat, alkalis, and acids had on the WAS dewatering properties. In addition to the impact on the dewatering properties, the release of organic material and nutrients from the cells has also been important for biomethane production. In this study, it was specifically NH4-N, PO43- and COD that have been studied. WAS from paper mills have in general poor methane potential so it was of interest to see how the WAS was affected by hydrolysis and how hydrolysis could improve the methane production. To test the hypothesis of whether hydrolysis could affect the WAS and improve the dewatering properties, several experiments were performed. The experiments included thermal hydrolysis at temperatures of 70-90 °C, acidic hydrolysis with acids such as spent acid and acid water, and alkalis such as green liquor sludge and EOP. All acids and alkalis used in the study were chemicals that exist at the paper mills included in this study. To test the dewatering properties, methods such as TS analysis on the accept, CST-analysis, and a belt press were used. Analyses were also performed on the reject to measure the suspended solids and the nutrients NH4 – N, PO43– and COD in the WAS. This study did also determine what effect hydrolysed WAS had on the biomethane potential. In this study were the paper mills BillerudKorsnäs in Skärblacka and SCA in Östrand included. Hence was sludge from the two mills of interest to analyse. This study has shown better dewatering properties with an increase in the total solids (in the accept) after the thermal hydrolysis, the acidic hydrolysis with spent acid, and the alkali hydrolysis with green liquor sludge. Specifically did the acidic hydrolysis with spent acid improve the dewatering properties in terms of an increase in TS in %. The biggest increase in TS in % could be seen after using 10% spent acid ratio. The TS for the WAS from SCA Östrand increased in this experiment by 107 %. The thermal hydrolysis also showed promising results both in terms of dewatering properties and in the release of organic material. The biochemical methane potential test results showed a better and more rapid stabilized production of biomethane after hydrolysis of WAS compared to untreated WAS. The thermal hydrolysis both increased the rate of production and the total amount of methane produced. The thermally hydrolysed WAS from SCA Östrand improved the methane production from 77 Nml methane/g VS to 95 Nml methane/ g VS. The WAS from BillerudKorsnäs improved the methane production from 40 Nml methane/ g VS to 55 Nml methane/ g VS. These results, both from the methane potential tests and the results of the increased dewatering properties, show that the concept with hydrolysing should be evaluated further for improving the dewatering of the WAS.