Bioelectrochemical system for the enhancement of methane production by anaerobic digestion of alkaline pretreated sludge.

An increasing interest is devoted to combined microbial electrolysis cell-anaerobic digestion (MEC-AD) system which could convert waste activated sludge into biogas. In this study series tests were initially conducted to study the effect of alkaline pretreatment on AD system and the results showed that alkaline pretreatment could promote the dissolution of organic matters in the sludge and thus improve the methane production. Then, the methane production in combined MEC-AD system fed with alkaline-pretreated sludge was investigated.