Characterization and recovery of in situ transesterifiable lipids (TLs) as potential biofuel feedstock from sewage sludge obtained from various sewage treatment plants (STPs)

Oh Kyung Choi, Zachary Hendren, Ki Young Park, Jae Kon Kim, Jo Yong Park, Ahjeong Son, Jae Woo Lee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study purposed to characterize the sewage sludge from various sewage treatment plants (STPs) as a biodiesel feedstock. Crude biodiesel was produced from each dried primary sludge (PS) and waste activated sludge (WAS) via in situ transesterification process. The average yield of transesterifiable lipid (TL) was 77.8% and 60.4% of the total lipid content from PS andWAS, respectively. The TL yield had a greater margin amongWAS than PS samples due to differences in the biological processes adopted in each treatment plant. The TL recovered from PS and WAS contained 54.2% and 40.1% fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), respectively, which were mostly made up of palmitic acid (C16:0) and stearic acid (C18:0). The FAME composition of the biodiesel in the WAS sample was highly associated with a microbial community that grows otherwise, depending on the purpose of the biological treatment process. In particular, the increase in the proportion of nitrifying bacteria that grow predominantly under a relatively longer solid retention time (SRT) contributed significantly to the improvement in FAME content.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3952
JournalEnergies
Volume12
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - 17 Oct 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.

Keywords

  • Biodiesel potential
  • Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs)
  • In situ transesterification
  • Lipid contents
  • Sewage sludge

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