Investigation of the effects of sewage sludge addition into solid waste digestion and leachate characteristics

Abstract

In this study, the effects co-disposal of sewage sludge with organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (OFMSW) were investigated in three simulated landfilling anaerobic bioreactors. One of them was only loaded with OFMSW (control reactor); the second and third reactors were loaded with sewage sludge and OFMSW at different weight ratio of the OFMSW to sewage sludge in order to compare the effects of co-disposal of sewage sludge with the solid wastes. After 61 days of anaerobic incubation, it was observed that the pH, COD, VFA concentrations in the leachate samples of the sewage sludge added reactors (especially run 2) were better than the control reactor. It was observed that the sewage sludge addition significantly increased the methane percentage in the anaerobic simulated reactor.