Enhancing excess sludge aerobic digestion with low intensity ultrasound

摘要

In order to enhance the efficiency of aerobic digestion, the excess sludge was irradiated by low intensity ultrasound at a frequency of 28 kHz and acoustic intensity of 0.53 W/cm^2. The results show that the sludge stabilization without ultrasonic treatment can be achieved after 17 d of digestion, whereas the digestion time of ultrasonic groups can be cut by 3-7 d. During the same digestion elapsing, in ultrasonic groups the total volatile suspended solid removal rate is higher than that in the control group. The kinetics of aerobic digestion of excess sludge with ultrasound can also be described with first-order reaction.