Purpose of Review

The objective of this review is to provide a closer check on the recent development in the thermal hydrolysis (TH) of wastewater sludge for anaerobic digestion performance enhancement with the focuses on the solubilization of sludge and macromolecules, organic micropollutants removal, TH-AD integration, and TH process (THP) energy balances.

Recent Findings

The recent research has developed improved understanding of the thermal hydrolysis mechanisms of proteins, carbohydrates, and lipid components of sludge and the characteristics of soluble COD in TH-treated sludge. Studies showed that TH treatment can partially remove micropollutants, but it has limited impact on the bioavailability of those compounds. For the THP and AD integration, the post TH and intermediate TH treatment have been introduced as two alternatives of the TH pretreatment, which have demonstrated the ability to achieve higher methane yields and VSS reduction.

Summary

TH is a well-established technology for anaerobic digestion performance enhancement due to its ability to improve digestion loading rate, sludge biodegradability, and sludge dewaterability. The recent studies elucidated the mechanisms of sludge TH, characteristics, and biodegradability of hydrolysis products, fate of nutrient and micropollutants in sludge TH, and the effect of AD-TH integration on methane production and VS reduction. Future work in sludge TH is still needed to reveal the mechanisms of production of refractory organics during TH treatment, optimize the design and operation of the ITHP-AD and AD-PsTHP processes, and improve the energy efficiency of TH-AD processes through energy reduction and recovery.

中文翻译：

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热水解增强废水污泥的厌氧消化性能

审查目的

这篇评论的目的是提供对污水污泥热水解（TH）在提高厌氧消化性能方面的最新进展的深入研究，重点是污泥和大分子的增溶，有机微污染物的去除，TH-AD的整合，和TH过程（THP）能量平衡。

最近的发现

最近的研究对污泥中蛋白质，碳水化合物和脂质成分的热水解机理以及TH处理过的污泥中可溶性COD的特性有了更好的了解。研究表明TH处理可以部分去除微量污染物，但对这些化合物的生物利用度影响有限。对于THP和AD的集成，已经引入了TH后处理和中间TH处理作为TH预处理的两个替代方法，它们证明了能够实现更高的甲烷收率和降低VSS的能力。

概要

TH是提高厌氧消化性能的成熟技术，因为它具有提高消化负荷率，污泥生物降解性和污泥脱水能力的能力。最近的研究阐明了污泥TH的机理，水解产物的特性和可生物降解性，污泥TH中营养物质和微量污染物的结局以及AD-TH一体化对甲烷生成和VS降低的影响。污泥TH的未来工作仍需要揭示TH处理过程中难降解有机物的产生机理，优化ITHP-AD和AD-PsTHP工艺的设计和操作，并通过降低能耗来提高TH-AD工艺的能源效率和恢复。