Performance and mechanisms of short-chain fatty acids production from waste activated sludge fermentation enhanced by pretreatment synergistic syngas

TAN Hui-jie; YU De-lin; LI Shen-zhuo; DUAN Yan-qing; WEI Yao-li; ZHOU Ai-juan; YUE Xiu-ping

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China Environmental Science ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (5) : 2577-2586.

Performance and mechanisms of short-chain fatty acids production from waste activated sludge fermentation enhanced by pretreatment synergistic syngas

TAN Hui-jie^1,2, YU De-lin¹, LI Shen-zhuo¹, DUAN Yan-qing³, WEI Yao-li¹, ZHOU Ai-juan¹, YUE Xiu-ping¹

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Abstract

To enhance the acid production efficiency of sludge anaerobic fermentation, based on the established evidence that the inclusion of syngas improved waste activated sludge (WAS) fermentation performance, this study investigated the effects of different chemical pretreatments combined with a syngas-mediated WAS fermentation system. The results showed that the free nitrous acid combined with peracetic acid (FNA/PAA) experimental group had the highest production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) ((5520.20 ±204.99) mg COD/L). However, the FNA/PAA group exhibited only 50.4% and 35.8% utilization rates for H₂and CO, respectively. In contrast, the TAP group demonstrated efficient utilization of syngas, with H2and CO utilization rates reaching 99.8% and 95.8%, respectively. Moreover, the production of SCFAs in the TAP group achieved a significant level of (4663.67 ±163.86) mg COD/L. At the same time, the three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum showed that TAP group had better extracellular polymer stripping and WAS lysis efficiency. TAP group also enhanced the enrichment of acid-producing functional bacteria in the anaerobic fermentation process, and significantly increased the abundance of Firmicutes to 59.0%. In addition, Romboutsia, which can metabolize acetic acid, ethanol and H₂, accounted for the highest proportion in alkali pretreatment (AP) and TAP groups (19.2% and 21.3%).

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anaerobic fermentation / pretreatment / short-chain fatty acids(SCFAs) / syngas / waste activated sludge(WAS)

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TAN Hui-jie, YU De-lin, LI Shen-zhuo, DUAN Yan-qing, WEI Yao-li, ZHOU Ai-juan, YUE Xiu-ping. Performance and mechanisms of short-chain fatty acids production from waste activated sludge fermentation enhanced by pretreatment synergistic syngas[J]. China Environmental Science. 2025, 45(5): 2577-2586

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