[Impacts of alkaline thermal treatment on characteristics of sludge from sewage treatment plant].

Alkaline thermal treatment is an important pretreatment method for sewage sludge. In this paper, in order to optimize the alkaline thermal treatment conditions for sludge pretreatment, four pretreatment parameters ( sludge concentration, pH, temperature and treatment time) were investigated through orthogonal experiments to determine their effects on the sludge disintegration, sludge concentration and sludge morphology of sewage sludge. The experimental results showed that the significance of the four factors on sludge characteristics was in the order of pH > temperature > treatment time > sludge concentration. Additionally, the optimal conditions of the four factors for the release of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) of unit sludge and decrease of sludge concentration were as follows: 36.55 g x L(-1), pH 12.45, 175 degrees C and 60 min. While the optimal conditions for the decrease of particle size and fractal dimension were 36.55 g x L(-1), pH 12.5, 175 degrees C and 45 min.