Carbon source recovery from waste sludge reduces greenhouse gas emissions in a pilot-scale industrial wastewater treatment plant

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ese.2022.100235
• Publication Date: 2022-12-30T01:24:35Z
• Authors: Qiandi Wang; Xiqi Li; Wenzong Liu; Siyuan Zhai; Qiongying Xu; Chang'an Huan; Shichen Nie; Qinghua Ouyang; Hongcheng Wang; Aijie Wang
• Keywords: Carbon fibers; Carbon Footprint

Carbon cycle regulation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission abatement within wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) can theoretically improve sustainability. Currently, however, large amounts of external carbon sources used for deep nitrogen removal waste sludge disposal aggravate the footprint most WWTPs. In this pilot-scale study, considerable was preliminarily recovered from primary (PS) through short-term (five days) acidogenic fermentation subsequently utilized on-site denitrification in a wool processing industrial WWTP. The sludge-derived were excellent electron donors that could be as additional supplements commercial glucose to enhance denitrification. Additionally, improvements flow further contributed GHG abatement. Overall, 9.1% reduction volatile solids achieved recovery, which offset 57.4% sources, indirect emissions target WWTP reduced by 8.05%. This study demonstrates optimizing allocation mass has numerous benefits.