Production of volatile fatty acids by fermentation of waste activated sludge pre-treated in full-scale thermal hydrolysis plants

This work focuses on fermentation of pre-treated waste activated sludge (WAS) to generate volatile fatty acids (VFAs). Pre-treatment by high-pressure thermal hydrolysis (HPTH) was shown to aid WAS fermentation. Compared to fermentation of raw WAS, pre-treatment enabled a 2–5x increase in VFA yield (gVFACOD gTCOD−1) and 4–6x increase in VFA production rate (gVFACOD L−1 d−1). sludges, pre-treated in full-scale HPTH plants, were fermented. One was from a plant processing a mix of primary sludge and WAS and the other two from plants processing solely WAS. The HPTH plants solubilised suspended matter, evidenced by a 20–30% decrease in suspended solids and an increase of soluble COD : total COD from 0.04 to 0.4. Fermentation of the three sludges yielded similar VFA concentrations (15–20 gVFACOD L−1). The yields were largely independent of retention time (1 d–6 d) and temperature (42 °C, 55 °C). Also, the product spectrum depended mostly on the composition of the sludge rather than on operating conditions.