Impact of nanoscale magnetite and zero valent iron on the batch-wise anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and waste-activated sludge

Ghada Kassab*, Dima Kather, Fadwa Odeh, Khaldoun Shatanawi, Maha Halalsheh, Mazen Arafah, Jules B. van Lier

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
54 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

As a potential approach for enhanced energy generation fromanaerobic digestion, iron-based conductive nanoparticles have been proposed to enhance the methane production yield and rate. In this study, the impact of two different types of iron nanoparticles, namely the nano-zero-valent-iron particles (NZVIs) and magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NPs) was investigated, using batch test under mesophilic conditions (35 °C). Magnetite NPs have been applied in doses of 25, 50 and 80 mg/L, corresponding to 13.1, 26.2 and 41.9 mg magnetite NPs/gTS of substrate, respectively. The results reveal that supplementing anaerobic batches with magnetite NPs at a dose of 25 mg/L induces an insignificant effect on hydrolysis and methane production. However, incubation with 50 and 80 mg/L magnetite NPs have instigated comparable positive impact with hydrolysis percentages reaching approximately 95% compared to 63% attained in control batches, in addition to a 50% enhancement in methane production yield. A biodegradability percentage of 94% was achieved with magnetite NP doses of 50 and 80 mg/L, compared to only 62.7% obtained with control incubation. NZVIs were applied in doses of 20, 40 and 60 mg/L, corresponding to 10.8, 21.5 and 32.2 mg NZVIs/gTS of substrate, respectively. The results have shown that supplementing anaerobic batches with NZVIs revealed insignificant impact, most probably due to the agglomeration of NZVI particles and consequently the reduction in available surface area, making the applied doses insufficient for measurable effect.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1283
Pages (from-to)1-19
Number of pages19
JournalWater (Switzerland)
Volume12
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Keywords

  • Anaerobic co-digestion
  • Food wastes
  • Iron oxide nano particles
  • Nano magnetite
  • Nano particles
  • Nano zero valent iron
  • Organic wastes
  • Sewage sludge
  • Waste-activated sludge

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