Experience of starting the pilot scale anaerobic reactor treating hydrogen production residue from sludge and kitchen waste.

Abstract As more and more water treatment plants were built, the amount of sludge in China increases rapidly. The main method of disposing is landfill, but it will occupy a large number of lands. Co-digestion with kitchen waste is an effective way to treat sludge, but there are some problems, such as acidification. Dividing the anaerobic digestion into hydrogen production process and methane production process can solve these problems properly. In this study, a 300L continuously stirred tank reactor treating the hydrogen production residue from sludge and kitchen waste had been running for about 110 days. The reactor was operated at a temperature of 36 °C. Due to equipment problem, the reactor failed to maintain suitable temperature from the 82 nd day.PH and the concentration of TVFA were measured everyday after equipment breakdown. Total sugar, TCOD, soluble sugar, total protein and soluble protein of the feedstock were compared with that of the effluent to evaluate the performance of the reactor after breakdown. On the 102th day, the concentration of TCOD decreased from 71009mg/L to 53296mg/L, and the degradation rate was 24.9%, the concentration of total sugar and total protein respectively decreased from 9721mg/L,23373mg/L to 5357mg/L,14475mg/L, the degradation rates were 44.9% and 38.1%.