Large and increasing volumes of wastewater are produced from the electrical and electronics manufacturing industries, and therefore, wastewater treatment has become a challenging task for manufacturers. This study investigated the anaerobic treatment of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) wastewater by co-digestion with ethyl lactate (EL) wastewater; both of these are major organic wastewaters generated from the manufacture of semiconductors and thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs). Biochemical potential tests showed that both the methane production rate and yield were enhanced significantly when TMAH and EL wastewaters were digested in a mixture than when they were digested alone. Correspondingly, the synergy index calculated based on the methane yield was significantly higher than 1 (i.e., synergistic effect) throughout the 60-day incubation period in all co-digestion runs, with the optimal mixing ratio of TMAH and EL wastewaters for methanogenic treatment ranging between 50:50 and 25:75 (total carbon basis). The overall results suggest that anaerobic co-digestion can offer a cost-effective option for the treatment and valorization of TMAH and EL wastewaters, thereby potentially helping to reduce wastewater treatment costs in the semiconductor and TFT-LCD industries.

电气和电子制造行业产生大量且不断增加的废水，因此，废水处理已成为制造商的一项艰巨任务。本研究研究了与乳酸乙酯（EL）废水共消化对氢氧化四甲基铵（TMAH）废水的厌氧处理；两者都是半导体和薄膜晶体管液晶显示器（TFT-LCD）生产中产生的主要有机废水。生化潜力测试表明，将TMAH和EL废水混合处理时，甲烷的生产率和产率均显着提高，而与单独消化时相比，甲烷的生产率和产量均得到显着提高。相应地，基于甲烷产量计算出的协同指数显着高于1（即，在所有共消化过程中，在整个60天的培养期间内都具有协同作用），用于产甲烷处理的TMAH和EL废水的最佳混合比为50:50至25:75（基于总碳）。总体结果表明，厌氧共消化可以为TMAH和EL废水的处理和增值提供经济有效的选择，从而有可能帮助降低半导体和TFT-LCD行业的废水处理成本。