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Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

ISSN 2095-2201

ISSN 2095-221X(Online)

CN 10-1013/X

Postal Subscription Code 80-973

2018 Impact Factor: 3.883

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.    2020, Vol. 14 Issue (6) : 98    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1277-2
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Degradation of polyacrylamide (PAM) and methane production by mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion: Effect of temperature and concentration
Mona Akbar1, Muhammad Farooq Saleem Khan1, Ling Qian2(), Hui Wang1()
1. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
2. Sino-Japan Friendship Center for Environmental Protection, Beijing 100029, China
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Abstract

• PAM degradation in thermophilic AD in comparison with mesophilic AD.

• PAM degradation and its impact on thermophilic and mesophilic AD.

• Enhanced methane yield in presence of PAM during thermophilic and mesophilic AD.

• PAM degradation and microbial community analysis in thermophilic and mesophilic AD.

Polyacrylamide (PAM) is generally employed in wastewater treatment processes such as sludge dewatering and therefore exists in the sludge. Furthermore, it degrades slowly and can deteriorate methane yield during anaerobic digestion (AD). The impact or fate of PAM in AD under thermophilic conditions is still unclear. This study mainly focuses on PAM degradation and enhanced methane production from PAM-added sludge during 15 days of thermophilic (55°C) AD compared to mesophilic (35°C) AD. Sludge and PAM dose from 10 to 50 g/kg TSS were used. The results showed that PAM degraded by 76% to 78% with acrylamide (AM) content of 0.2 to 3.3 mg/L in thermophilic AD. However, it degraded only 27% to 30% with AM content of 0.5 to 7.2 mg/L in mesophilic AD. The methane yield was almost 230 to 238.4 mL/g VSS on the 8th day in thermophilic AD but was 115.2 to 128.6 mL/g VSS in mesophilic AD. Mechanism investigation revealed that thermophilic AD with continuous stirring not only enhanced PAM degradation but also boosted the organics release from the sludge with added PAM and gave higher methane yield than mesophilic AD.

Keywords Polyacrylamide (PAM) degradation      Acrylamide (AM)      Mesophilic anaerobic digestion      Thermophilic anaerobic digestion      Methane production     
Corresponding Author(s): Ling Qian,Hui Wang   
Issue Date: 17 June 2020
 Cite this article:   
Mona Akbar,Muhammad Farooq Saleem Khan,Ling Qian, et al. Degradation of polyacrylamide (PAM) and methane production by mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion: Effect of temperature and concentration[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2020, 14(6): 98.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-020-1277-2
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2020/V14/I6/98
Parameter Sludge *
pH 6.67±0.13
TS 64.74±1.49
VS 45.23±0.49
VS/TS 71%
TSS 60.81±1.20
VSS 44.05±0.14
TSS/TS 93%
TCOD 68.45±10.47
SCOD 1.34±0.03
Tab.1  Main characteristics of sludge
Fig.1  PAM degradation and methane production in (a) mesophilic AD (b) thermophilic AD.
Fig.2  PAM degradation and VFA production (a) mesophilic AD and (b) thermophilic AD, Composition of VFA (c) in mesophilic AD and (d) in thermophilic AD.
Fig.3  Relative abundances of Bacterial populations at phylum level in absence and presence of PAM (1) Blank mesophilic AD (2) PAM-added mesophilic AD (3) Blank thermophilic AD (4) PAM-added thermophilic AD.
Fig.4  PAM degradation in mesophilic and thermophilic AD, (a) PAM10 g/kg TSS (b)PAM 20 g/kg TSS (c) PAM30 g/kg TSS (d) PAM 40 g/kg TSS (e) PAM 50 g/kg TSS.
Fig.5  The proposed process of PAM degradation in AD.
Fig.6  Acrylamide monomer content in mesophilic AD and thermophilic AD.
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