Enrichment of less hydrophilic sludge

• Main Author: Lai, Shu Ming
• Other Authors: Liu Yu
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Environmental engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/39628
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Hydrophilicity affects the evaporation rate of water from the sludge, and hence the diffusion flux in MDBR. The method to cultivate two sets of microbial consortia with different hydrophilicity was optimized in terms of the COD loading and extractant effectiveness of the selection methods via MATH adherence percentage and contact angle. It was found that adherence percentage and contact angle increased with number of microbial selection. In addition, Xylene was presumed to be a better extractant than hexadecane for less hydrophilic sludge. The effect of extraction on the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) was also determined, and it was found that that the ratio of bound proteins to polysaccharide decreased with MATH selection. Furthermore, evaporation test was carried out to determine the effect of sludge hydrophilicity on vapour pressure. Different phases of evaporation process were discussed and higher evaporation rate was observed with less hydrophilic sludge.