Application of Statistical Analysis for Optimization of Organic Wastes Acidogenesis

This study shows how to find out optimum co-substrate conditions and continuous operating parameters for maximum acidification of three different organic wastes - livestock wastewater, sewage sludge and food waste. Design of experiments and statistical analysis were revealed as appropriate optimization schemes in this study. Analyses of data obtained from batch tests demonstrated the optimum substrate mixing ratio, which was determined by maximum total volatile fatty acids(TVFA) increase and soluble chemical oxygen demand(SCOD) increase simultaneously. Suggested optimum mixing ratio of livestock wastewater, sewage sludge and food waste was 0.4 : 1.0 : 1.1 based on COD, respectively. Response surface methodology(RSM) contributed to find out optimum operating parameter - hydraulic retention time(HRT) and substrate concentration - for the semi-continuous acidogenic fermentation of mixed organic wastes. The optimum condition for maximum TVFA increase was 2 days of HRT and 29,237 mg COD/L. Empirical equations obtained through regression analysis could predict that TVFA increase would be 73%. To confirm the validity of the statistical experimental strategies, a confirmation experiment was conducted under the obtained optimum conditions, and relative error between theoretical and experimental results was within 4%. This result reflects that using statistical and RSM technique can be effectively used for the optimization of real waste treatment processes.