Achieving Asset Optimisation and Higher Biomethane Yields with Thermal Hydrolysis

Balasundaram, G., Gahlot, P., Tyagi, V.K., Kazmi, A.A., Kleiven, H., Sahu, A.K.

19th IWA Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewarer Technologies, 2024

Abstract

SBR sludge was subjected to thermal hydrolysis process (THP) at varying temperatures and pressures and later tested at pilot scale mesophilic anaerobic digestion (MAD) and thermophilic anaerobic digestion (TAD). Varying hydraulic retention times (HRT) was tested for MAD. It was found that HRT of MAD can be reduced to less than 10 days to achieve optimised methane yields, which can reduce the overall size of MAD saving digestion time and space. A comparison of THP+MAD yielded twice the methane yields than TAD and four times more than MAD for SBR sludge, while twice the methane yields than TAD and twice times more than MAD for conventional activated sludge. THP+MAD yielded biosolids free of pathogens, suited for land application.

Download the paper.