Maximizing energy recovery from wastewater via bioflocculation-enhanced primary treatment: a pilot scale study.

Anaerobic digestion of municipal sewage sludge is widely used for harvesting energy from wastewater organic content. The more organic carbon we can redirect into the primary sludge, the less energy is needed for aeration in secondary treatment and the more methane is produced in anaerobic digesters. Bioflocculation has been proposed as a promising separation technology to maximize carbon capture in primary sludge.

Use of activated sludge biomass as an agent for advanced primary separation.

Conventional primary settling is a physical process of solid-liquid separation, normally presenting low removal efficiencies. Improvement of this separation process would result in energetic advantages: lower aeration requirements and higher biogas production form primary and secondary sludges. Secondary sludge has been proposed as a potential agent promoting an increase in primary separation efficiency.