ALKALINE-HYDROLYSIS OF THE SLUDGE GENERATED FROM A HIGH-STRENGTH, NITROGENOUS-WASTE-WATER BIOLOGICAL-TREATMENT PROCESS

The production of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS, a petrochemica l product) in Taiwan is one of the biggest manufactoring processes in the world. The large amount of ABS sludge generated in the wastewater treatment plant from the highly nitrogenous-wastewater contains signif icant amount of complex and biorefractory organic substances. Resource recovery is the optimal conception of the traditional sludge treatmen t for the purpose of organic matters removal. An alkaline pretreatment method is used to enhance the efficiency of biological hydrolysis of industrial wastewater sludge in the present study. The operating condi tions for the alkaline pretreatment of the ABS sludge were maintained at room temperature (25+/-3 degrees C), reaction time of 24h, total so lids in the feed of 0.5-2%, and NaOH dosages of 10-50 mg l(-1). Consid ering the increasing concentrations of soluble chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand, the experimental results indicated that the alkaline pretreatment method was useful in biodegradability enhan cement. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science I;tn. All rights reserved.