Effect of DC corona on performance of Pulsed electric field pretreatment on waste activated sludge

With the purpose of improving the efficiency of anaerobic digestion for waste activated sludge, μs-Pulsed electric field (μs-PEF) has been employed for pretreatment on waste activated sludge and its features of low energy consumption and high efficiency make it a promising method for industry application. In this work, DC corona has been used to assist the μs-PEF treatment on the sludge and the treatment efficiency has been estimated by measuring the soluble chemical oxygen demand, NH₃-N and total phosphorus. The influence of the polarity and magnitude of DC voltage on the treatment efficiency has been discussed. Obtained results showed that DC corona assisted PEF has higher treatment efficiency than PEF treatment. It is suggested that electroporation of microbial cell membrane within the sludge is likely to occur easily with the initial treatment of DC corona, which in turn facilitates the disruption of cell membrane.