Effect and mechanism of microwave irradiation and alkaline solubilization as a combined method on sludge

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect and mechanism of pretreating sewage sludge with microwave/alkali as a combined method, also the improvement of anaerobic digestion by of treated sludge was tested by biochemical methane potential (BMP) procedure. The results showed that synergistic effect was played between microwave irradiation and alkali. The SCOD of liquor reached 2684mg/L, 2960mg/L, 3126mg/L respectively, when the time to pretreat sewage sludge with MW800w + pH 10,11,12 was 300s. It is a good explanation that the process of increase in SCOD by observing the sludge biological phases with microscope, which two sludge crack processes in the cells under pretreatment using microwave were clearly saw, floc disintegration and cell break. Not only the time of sludge anaerobic digestion after microwave/alkali pretreatment reduced, but also gas production increased, and the gas production of MW800w + pH10 group reached a maximum 204.3mL on 6^th day.