Potential of high-frequency ultrasounds to improve sludge anaerobic conversion and surfactants removal at different food/inoculum ratio

High-frequency ultrasounds have recently gained interest as oxidative technique for sonochemical degradation of organic contaminants in water. In this study an innovative approach applying 200 kHz ultrasounds to improve both sludge anaerobic biodegradability and decontamination is proposed. Digestion tests were performed on batch reactors fed either with untreated or sonicated sludge, at different food/inoculum (F/I) ratio, in the range 0.3–0.9. First order kinetic highlighted a decreasing trend of the hydrolysis rate by increasing F/I, both for untreated and sonicated sludge. Positive effect of ultrasounds on specific biogas production was evident, but the conversion rate for pretreated sludge was strongly affected by F/I, and decreased by increasing F/I. Anionic surfactants anaerobic removal occurred in all tests, but the effect of ultrasounds was significant only at F/I = 0.3. By pretreating sludge with high frequency ultrasounds, low F/I was the ideal ratio improving both sludge anaerobic digestion and decontamination.