Accelerating the sludge disintegration potential of a novel bacterial strain Planococcus jake 01 by CaCl2 induced deflocculation

The present study investigates the impacts of phase separated disintegration through CaCl2 (calcium chloride) mediated biosurfactant producing bacterial pretreatment. In the initial phase of the study, the flocs were disintegrated (deflocculation) with 0.06 g/g SS of CaCl2. In the subsequent phase, the sludge biomass was disintegrated (cell disintegration) through potent biosurfactant producing new novel bacteria, Planococcus jake 01. The pretreatment showed that suspended solids reduction and chemical oxygen demand solubilization for deflocculated – bacterially pretreated sludge was found to be 17.14% and 14.14% which were comparatively higher than flocculated sludge (treated with bacteria alone). The biogas yield potential of deflocculated – bacterially pretreated, flocculated, and control sludges were observed to be 0.322 (L/g VS), 0.225 (L/g VS) and 0.145 (L/g VS) respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first study to present the thorough knowledge of biogas production potential through a novel phase separated biosurfactant bacterial pretreatment.