Effect of Assisted Ultrasonication and Ozone Pretreatments on Sludge Characteristics and Yield of Biogas Production

The effects of ultrasonic and ozonation pretreatments on organic solubilization, anaerobic biodegradability, and biogas production were elucidated in this study. Two pretreatment methods for batch anaerobic digestion for biogas recovery with the same material and experimental conditions were the focus for comparison. Anaerobic digestion experiments were conducted at ambient temperature with the solid retention time set to 25 days. The obtained results indicated that the soluble chemical oxygen demand increased from 0.344 without pretreatment to 1.023 and 1.228 g/L with ultrasound and ozone pretreatments, respectively, whereas the yields of biogas production in the 25 days increased by 32.3 and 52.9% via ultrasonic irradiation and ozonation relative to the control case, respectively. The biodegradability of the organic compounds of the samples for the cases of ultrasound, ozone pretreatments, and control achieved 55.9, 64.31, and 39.18%, respectively, in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies. The physicochemical characteristics of sludge flocs were investigated via scanning with particle sizes, which were obviously affected by pretreatments of sonication and ozonation, resulting in finer particles than in the control case.