International Collaborative Research Project: No. ANSO-CR-PP-2020-07

Number of wastewater treatment plants are increasing rapidly along with human population and growing cities. This has been increasing large quantities of treatment sludge. In Turkey, treatment sludge are generally deposited in landfills after dewatering processes. Also it is used as soil conditioner which has adverse environmental effects such as odour and pollution in groundwater.

It is indicated that 4500 tons/day of treatment sludge (dried bases) are produced in Turkey. Anaerobic digestion process is one of the most promising uses of treatment sludge, by converting organic waste into stable organic soil conditioners or liquid fertilizers, and reducing the environmental impact of organic waste products prior to their disposal, resolving ecological and agrochemical issues. Also anaerobic treatment regarded as a source of renewable energy in the form of methane gas. In this project, before anaerobic digestion process, disintegration process will be applied to the treatment sludge. At the end of the process, the big particulates and long chain molecules are ruptured. Therefore, enhancing microbial decomposition, biodegradable level of sludge and biogas recovery will be increased. At the same time for this application, it is known that disintegration of treatment sludge fed to anaerobic digester cause more phosphor and nitrogen releasing in the effluent of discharge (supernatant). This effluent will be used in liquid fertilizer production for a commercial based.