Effect of Ozonation on Biodegradability Characteristics of Surplus Activated Sludge

The study investigates the effect of sludge ozonation on solid matter species, disintegration properties, sludge components, and solubilization characteristics under different operating conditions. Ozonation of surplus activated sludge samples taken from the secondary settling tank of a domestic wastewater treatment plant indicates that soluble nitrogen, phosphorus and COD concentrations proliferate as a consequence of extending the ozone feeding time. A steady increase both in soluble nitrogen concentration and ratio of organic phosphorus to soluble phosphorus is observed through ozonation where specific ozone doses range between 4 and 11 mg O₃/g SS. Combined treatment of chemical oxidation and aerobic biodegradation to surplus activated sludge is also applied to improve the biodegradability of organic matter by partial chemical oxidative pretreatment with as little specific ozone consumption as possible. The partial oxidation by integrated ozonation is operated as a pre-oxidation step for the subsequent biological degradation, due to the fact that the competition with biological degradation in removing biodegradable organic compounds is avoided and most probably a more biodegradable sludge composition is obtained by means of ozonation. Combined treatment of chemical oxidation and aerobic biodegradation conducted to scrutinize the synergic effect of the coupled treatment system reveals that TS and COD removal efficiencies of ozonated sludge samples cannot be improved beyond the third aerobic biodegradation step.