Performance of ammonium chloride dosage on hydrogen sulfide in-situ prevention during waste activated sludge anaerobic digestion

Revealing an unrecognized role of free ammonia in sulfur transformation during sludge anaerobic treatment

Free ammonia (FA), the unionized form of ammonium, is presented in anaerobic fermentation of waste activated sludge (WAS) at high levels. However, its potential role in sulfur transformation, especially H₂S production, during WAS anaerobic fermentation process was unrecognized previously. This work aims to unveil how FA affects anaerobic sulfur transformation in WAS anaerobic fermentation. It was found that FA significantly inhibited H₂S production. With an increase of FA from 0.04 to 159 mg/L, H₂S production reduced by 69.9%. FA firstly attacked tyrosine-like proteins and aromatic-like proteins in sludge EPSs, with CO groups being responded first, which decreased the percentage of α-helix/(β-sheet + random coil) and destroyed hydrogen bonding networks. Cell membrane potential and physiological status analysis showed that FA destroyed membrane integrity and increased the ratio of apoptotic and necrotic cells. These destroyed sludge EPSs structure and caused cell lysis, thus strongly inhibited the activities of hydrolytic microorganisms and sulfate reducing bacteria. Microbial analysis showed that FA reduced the abundance of functional microbes (e.g., Desulfobulbus and Desulfovibrio) and genes (e.g., MPST, CysP, and CysN) involved in organic sulfur hydrolysis and inorganic sulfate reduction. These findings unveil an actually existed but previously overlooked contributor to H₂S inhibition in WAS anaerobic fermentation.

A review on sulfur transformation during anaerobic digestion of organic solid waste: Mechanisms, influencing factors and resource recovery

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an economical and environment-friendly technology for treating organic solid wastes (OSWs). OSWs with high sulfur can lead to the accumulation of toxic and harmful hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) during AD, so a considerable amount of studies have focused on removing H₂S emissions. However, current studies have found that sulfide induces phosphate release from the sludge containing iron‑phosphorus compounds (FePs) and the feasibility of recovering elemental sulfur (S⁰) during AD. To tap the full potential of sulfur in OSWs resource recovery, deciphering the sulfur transformation pathway and its influencing factors is required. Therefore, in this review, the sulfur species and distributions in OSWs and the pathway of sulfur transformation during AD were systematically summarized. Then, the relationship between iron (ferric compounds and zero-valent iron), phosphorus (FePs) and sulfur were analyzed. It was found that the reaction of iron with sulfide during AD drove the conversion of sulfide to S⁰ and iron sulfide compounds (FeS_x), and consequently iron was applied in sulfide abatement. In particular, ferric (hydr)oxide granules offer possibilities to improve the economic viability of hydrogen sulfide control by recovering S⁰. Sulfide is an interesting strategy to release phosphate from the sludge containing FePs for phosphorus recovery. Critical factors affecting sulfur transformation, including the carbon source, free ammonia and pretreatment methods, were summarized and discussed. Carbon source and free ammonia affected sulfur-related microbial diversity and enzyme activity and different sulfur transformation pathways in response to varying pretreatment methods. The study on S⁰ recovery, organic sulfur conversion, and phosphate release mechanism triggered by sulfur deserves further investigation. This review is expected to enrich our knowledge of the role of sulfur during AD and inspire new ideas for recovering phosphorus and sulfur resources from OSWs.

Odor reduction using hydrogen sulfide-removing bacteria in sludge filtration systems: Ferrous-oxidizing bacteria and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria

The preconditioning of digested sludge in sludge filtration systems produces hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), a major odor-causing source. This study evaluated the effects of adding H₂S-removing bacteria to sludge-filtration systems. Ferrous-oxidizing bacteria (FOB) and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB) were mass-cultivated in a hybrid bioreactor equipped with an internal circulation system. In this bioreactor, FOB and SOB effectively removed >99% of H₂S; however, the acidic conditions created by adding a coagulant during digested sludge preconditioning were more favorable for FOB than for SOB. In batch tests, SOB and FOB removed 94 ± 1.1% and 99 ± 0.1% of H₂S, respectively; therefore, digested sludge preconditioning proved more suitable for FOB activity than SOB activity. The results revealed that the optimal FOB addition ratio was 0.2%, validated using a pilot filtration system. Moreover, the 57.5 ± 2.9 ppm H₂S generated in the sludge preconditioning step was reduced to 0.01 ± 0.01 ppm after adding 0.2% FOB. Therefore, the results of this study will be useful because they provide a process for biologically removing odor-causing sources without affecting the dewatering efficiency of the filtration system.

Low H2S content biogas biodesulfurization from high solid sludge anaerobic digestion using limited external aeration biotrickling filter: Effect of gas-liquid pattern on oxygen utilization performance

An efficient and precise method is needed for low H₂S content biogas biodesulfurization, produced during high solid sludge anaerobic digestion. Continuous experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of a lab-scale biotrickling filter (BTF) in H₂S removal and oxygen utilization. The results show that the sulfur loading rate decreased by 66% compared to conventional H₂S content, thus achieving a sufficient removal efficiency (>0.9). With a limited external aeration (0.5-2.0 molO₂·molS^-1), the oxygen consumption (O/S_re) to its supplement (O/S_in) ratios increased from 50-71% (conventional H₂S) to 83-92% (low H₂S), indicating that low H₂S flux promotes a sufficient oxygen utilization. Furthermore, the difference in oxygen utilization between co-current and counter-current flow patterns decreased under limited external aeration as the H₂S content sharply decreased. These results indicate that a dynamic oxygen-sulfur (O-S) balanced multistage BTF is expected to achieve a more precise vertical O-S distribution for sulfur resource recovery.

Biological biogas purification: Recent developments, challenges and future prospects

Raw biogas generated in the anaerobic digestion (AD) process contains several undesired constituents such as H₂S, CO₂, NH₃, siloxanes and VOCs. These gases affect the direct application of biogas, and are a prime concern in biogas utilization processes. Conventional physico-chemical biogas purification methods are energy-intensive and expensive. To promote sustainable development and environmental friendly technologies, biological biogas purification technologies can be applied. This review describes biological technologies for both upstream and downstream processing in terms of pollutant removal mechanisms and efficiency, bioreactor configurations and different operating conditions. Limitations of the biological approaches and their future scope are also highlighted. A conceptual framework Driver-Pressure-Stress-Impact-Response (DPSIR) and Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis have been applied to analyse the present situation and future scope of biological biogas clean-up technologies.

Characteristics of low H2S concentration biogas desulfurization using a biotrickling filter: Performance and modeling analysis

This study investigated the characteristics of low H₂S concentration biogas biodesulfurization using a lab-scale biotrickling filter (BTF). The influence of operational parameters on H₂S removal efficiency and H₂S distributions in packed bed was evaluated by establishing a counter-current one-dimensional multi-layer BTF model and statistical analysis of the simulation results. The overall biodesulfurization efficiency of counter-current BTF on treating low H₂S concentration was 92.27 ± 10.30%. The H₂S distribution of the BTF packed bed could be predicted by the calibrated BTF model. The influence of the operational parameters on the H₂S distribution of the packed bed was following the sequence of pH > empty bed retention time (EBRT) > gas-to-liquid flow ratio (G/L). The biogas biodesulfurization process was strongly related to the sulphide affinity constant. Moreover, a high substrate concentration of the SOB could further accelerate the biodesulfurization process of the biogas with low H₂S concentration.