Considerations in Using Thermal Hydrolysis for Pre-Digestion Processing in North America

摘要

Over the last 15 years, major advances have been made in practical application of thermalhydrolysis (TH) as a pre-anaerobic digestion process to provide improved digestionperformance and greater methane production, as well as to achieve better finaldewatering performance and improved final biosolids cake product characteristics.Currently, there are at least two companies promoting and implementing the process,world-wide, with interest by others in examining the process for potential developmentand use. Several wastewater agencies in North America have examined the technologyfor potential use because of published successes overseas, availability of process andproject information, ability to achieve Class A biosolids, and other factors including therecent decisions by the DC Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) to construct thesystem at very large-scale (400 dry metric tonnes/day of capacity.)Wastewater agencies are anxious to learn about the advantages and benefits of thetechnology, but also about any disadvantages or operational implications that may beassociated with using thermal hydrolysis pretreatment prior to anaerobic digestion.