Gas Extraction from Sludge as Acquired from Oxidation Ponds of Community Wastewater and Cassava-Factory Wastewater Treatment through Nature-by-Nature Processes

The study was aimed on determining the gas volume from sludge of oxidation ponds for community wastewater treatment and UASB tank of cassava factory for wastewater treatment in which the organic matters of both units were digested through the nature-by-nature process. The amounts of ovendry weight sludge about 200 g were collected in the light brow glass bottle with 2.5-l capacity. The fermentation of organic matters in sludge is the process to produce gases and being transferred to store in chamber by fluid displacement. The gases from sludge of oxidation pond was occurred on the second day and the maximum on the sixth day with the rate of 70 ml/d and average of 36.02 ml/d (total 360.23 ml for 10 days) while cassava factory sludge found the maximum volume on the first day with the rate of 142.6 ml/d and average of 72.2 ml/d (total 649.97 ml for 9 days). In other words, the oxidation pond sludge can produce gas 1.8 ml/g (oven dry weight) while the cassava factory sludge found gas 3.25 ml/g (oven dry weight). Research results found gases of oxidation pond sludge on the range of methane concentration between 545,686 – 9,560,606 ppm, hydrogen sulfide 55.94 to 360.27 ppm, and ammonia ND to 36.22 ppm, while the cassava factory sludge found methane gas concentration between 729,404 to 9,900,837 ppm, hydrogen sulfide 5,894 to 68,050 ppm, and ammonia ND to 44.15 ppm.


Introduction
There have been approximately 20,000 agro-industrial factories in the whole Kingdom of Thailand, but very high density in the central and the east.All factories go side by side with being obligated by laws to set up the effective wastewater treatment system without any exception.After bacterial organic digestion processing, the environmental indicators of treated wastewater must be equal or less than water quality standards for effluent, for example, the effluent BOD must legally equal or less than 20 mg/L.It is understood that the sludge has been formulated after bacterial digestion processing and moving down to the bottom of oxidation ponds.After that, the sludge will be gradually accumulated for some depth affecting the storage oxidation pond capacity in which the decreased rate of aerobic bacterial digesting process (Chen et al., 2008;Appels et al., 2008).In case of dredging up sludge, it has some difficulty to designate the dumpling areas due to oppose from the nearby dwellers.The only way can be done by using their own land which has very small part of the factory boundary.In basic principles, the dredged sludge can be usable for dumping on swamp land areas, some case for fertilizing croplands because it is supposed to comprise of plant nutrients.It is remarkable to stress that using the sludge from oxidation ponds for land dumping and cropland fertilizing would be probably insecure according to some toxicant contaminations from excess resources and residues from technology, especially community wastewater from bigger cities.Actually, flowing the excess water through communities and cities is normally contaminated with mostly organic wastes that becoming some part of stream pollution (Li et al., 1996).Theoretical point of views, the organic waste in stream water is normally digested by bacteria which needs dissolved oxygen as energy to conduct the processes, H.M. the King of Thailand calls this phenomena as nature-by-nature process.
For clear understanding the nature-by-nature process, it has been explained as shown in Figure 1 that the dissolved oxygen in community wastewater is originated from three processes: firstly, photosynthesis of phytoplankton and algae; secondly, thermo-siphon process due to evaporation from surface water that cooling water to have more diffused oxygen and to sink down to the bottom; and thirdly, thermo-osmosis process  under nature-by-nature processes to produce oxygen supplying in bacterial organic digesting to become inorganic materials as plant nutrients for herbivore fishes consuming.Consequently, the sludge is produced during the bacterial digestion processing and moving down to the bottom of the oxidation ponds in terms of accumulative depth.In practicing point of views, such accumulated sludge has to be dredged out in every 5 years for encouraging the aerobic process of the excess and bigger size of organic wastes in community wastewater.

UASB Sludge Products
Banpong Tapioca Flour Industrial Company Limited is a Thailand leading manufacturer of native starch and various modified starch located in Banpong district, Ratchaburi province.The harvested cassava were washing and transferring to grind and manufacturing to produce the tapioca flour (cassava starch) as the product of cassava factory.At the same time, the wastewater from washing and cleaning of manufacturing process has to be drained into the UASB tank and consecutive-oxidation ponds for wastewater treatment before becoming effluent to the public water sources.

Sludge Collection
Purposively, the five sampling points were located on four corners and the middle of oxidation pond for Royal LERD project site in Petchaburi province (aged more than 3 years) for represent low concentration of organic matters and sampling sludge from UASB tank of cassava factory wastewater treatment plant in Ratchaburi province for represent high concentration of organic matters as shown in Figure1.Fresh-weight sludge samples were collected and kept them in close-dark containers for determining its moisture and using for energy extraction.

Sludge Moisture Determination
Every fresh-weight sludge that took from community wastewater treatment pond (oxidation pond of Royal-LERD) and cassava wastewater treatment plant (second treatment from UASB system) was to determine the moisture content.The method how to determine the sludge moisture content as in Equations 1-2: Where: M = sludge moisture (%).
W = calculated fresh weight of sludge.
For the anaerobic conditions, moisture content have been considered to be important factor indicated that the amount of biogas should be directly depended on the moisture content and organic matters in sludge (Lay et al., 1997).Therefore, this research was focused on sludge moisture variation of M/4, M/2, M, 2M, and 4M as the stimulant for gas producing.It is obvious that M/4 and M/2 obtained by water pressing machine, M is normally fresh moisture content as obtained directly during sludge sampling from oxidation ponds, while M2 and M4 obtained by adding water.Consequently, the fresh-weight sludge for this experiment should be as in Equations 3-7: Based on oven-dry weight of 200 g (X), the fresh-weight sludge of W1, W2, W3, W4, and W5 were filled into the light brown color of 2.5-l narrow-mouth glass jar with two holes, first hole for thermometer for measuring inside temperature and second hole for silicone rubber tube for transferring gas during/after anaerobic digestion process in fermentation stage.However, there must be sealed any leakage by transparent silicone, and also the glass jar must be wrapped by aluminum foils in order to imitate the closed system for anaerobic process as illustrated in Figure 3. www.ccsen

Measur
In principl narrow mo measured aluminum Figure 3. T processing outer part reported as After the a three-way gas from th into vacuu (NH 3 ) was  Remarks: ND = Non-Detectable.
The Royal LERD oxidation pond sludge due to bring more silt and clay particles in the study area by estuarine water from the Gulf of Thailand which obtained them from the main-five rivers (Bang Pakong, Chao Phraya, Tha Chin, Mae Klong, and Petchaburi).It is noticeable that there were pH of cassava factory sludge on the value of 7.1 because the wastewater came from freshwater as used for manufacturing activities, while pH 7.8 for the Royal LERD sludge came from the mixing between the freshwater wastewater and estuarine water.Moreover, it is believed that in reality texture are highly percent silt which have adhered and attached together during the long term stock and degradation of sludge.(Arulrajah et al., 2011) Unfortunately, cassava factory UASB tank dried sludge texture was loamy sand because sludge from UASB tanks always likes granules sometimes called seed.A sludge granule is an aggregate of microorganisms forming during wastewater treatment in an environment with a constant upflow hydraulic regime.After when sludge granules were dried eventually the aggregates form into dense compact and texture like sand.So, the texture of cassava factory was classified as loamy sand.
Research results had to pay more attention to the content of organic matter in sludge of UASB tank from cassava factory higher up to 22.43% by weight while the Royal LERD oxidation pond sludge found only about one half (12.77% by weight) as indicated in Table1.The hydraulic retention time (HTR) should pay role in higher reduction rate of organic wastes by the bacterial organic digestion processing as belonged to the Royal LERD community wastewater treatment system while less rate found in UASB for cassava factory wastewater treatment.In other words, the Royal LERD wastewater treatment system (in-pipe anaerobic process plus 5-consecutive oxidation ponds through nature-by-nature processes about 65 days until drain out) would be functioned more completely degradation than UASB system (engineering technology) as belonged to the cassava factory wastewater treatment.This was why the organic wastes left in the cassava factory sludge (22.43% by weight) higher than in sludge from the Royal LERD project site (12.77% by weight).
The research findings were obtained from analyzing some plant nutrients in sludge as designated in Table 1.The averaged values of phosphorus (175 mg/kg), potassium (370 mg/kg) and magnesium (777 mg/kg) for the Royal LERD sludge were lower than phosphorus (1,714 mg/kg), potassium (6,420 mg/kg) and magnesium (1,749 mg/kg) for the cassava factory sludge because of higher organic matter content in cassava and its adhered soils which are expected to contain more phosphorus and potassium elements.However, the value of calcium (4,876 mg/kg) of the Royal LERD sludge showed about 4 times higher than calcium of cassava factory sludge (1,541 mg/kg) as illustrated in Table1.Technically speaking, both sources of sludge could be able to apply for growing economic crops, only if they had to be safe from toxic chemicals which might be contaminated in the sludge.
Actually, cassava factory sludge is composed of much more carbohydrate in which the main structure is exactly pertained to carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.It is no doubt that why the cassava factory sludge can absorb more water than sludge as obtained by oxidation pond of the Royal LERD wastewater treatment system.Besides, there were much more nitrogen, TKN, NH 3 , and nitrate that indicated high moisture absorption in part of cassava factory sludge (31 times of its oven-dry weight) than the oxidation pond sludge (11 times of its oven-dry weight).Furthermore, the bacterial organic digestion under nature-by-nature process in oxidation pond sludge was presumably fulfilled much more than occurring in cassava factory sludge from UASB anaerobic process as stated previously.

Moisture Content of Sludge
The evidence can be seen in the research results for sludge moisture determination as shown in Table 1.The results found the moisture content in oxidation pond sludge 606.97% or higher about 7 times of its oven-dry weight while in cassava factory sludge 1,120.66%or about 11 times as shown in Table1.The reason will be emphasized on the water absorptivity of organic matter, normally more than 7 times of its oven-dry weight, that induced to think of the more organic matter content are the more water absorption in sludge.The previous statement could be pointed out that this is the reason why the cassava factory sludge was shown in higher water absorption capacity than results found in the oxidation pond sludge as designated in Table1.
Theoretically speaking, the digested organic matter, mostly called as inorganic materials, is normally capable to absorb water in three forms: firstly, in form of chemical-combined water; secondly, in form of the particle pores (both macropores and micropores of greater and less 50 microns in diameter); and lastly, coating on particle surface by adhesive and cohesive forces.Field observation found that the oxidation pond sludge was comprised of more coarse particles than cassava factory sludge, in which the diameter size of micropores should be existed more than macropores.In contrary, the micropores and specific surface of cassava sludge would play vital role in more water absorption capacity not only in-cavity function but also coating on the finer particle surface.This is why the cassava factory sludge showed its water absorption capability than the oxidation pond sludge as illustrated in Table 1.In the same way, the sludge that is characterized somewhat friable structure like oxidation pond sludge can normally absorb less amount of water than fine particles of cassava sludge.
www.ccsenIt should be noted that the maximum amount of gas from oxidation pond sludge was occurred at the sixth days on the field fresh weight (W3) about 70 ml/day (1.8 ml/g of its own oven-dry weight) and a little small amount after squeezing sludge moisture about a half (W2) and one-fourth content (W1) but lower biogas production found by adding moisture for 2 and 3 times (W4 and W5 respectively) of the field fresh weight (W3) as shown in Table1 and Figure 4.The cassava factory sludge, gas was occurred in the maximum rate at first day on cassava factory sludge found the maximum volume on the first day with the rate of 142.6 ml/d and average of 72.2 ml/d (3.25 ml/g of its own oven-dry weight).In other words, the existing moisture in sludge showed higher potential to produce more biogas than dewatering or adding moisture.For practicability, the direct grab of sludge from oxidation ponds should be immediately brought to ferment in order to get more biogas products.The results presented in Figure 4(a) show that gas releasing activity of oxidation pond at low moisture content was also remarkably lower than at high moisture content.In contrary, Cassava factory sludge found the high moisture content (about 11 times of its oven-dry weight) when adding more water to increase moisture (W4 and W5), the results presented in Figure 4(b) show that gas releasing activity at low moisture content was also remarkably higher than at low moisture content.Obviously, the moisture content is important environmental factors for organic digestion process and has specific relationship with methanogenic activity in anaerobic digestion process (Cheremisinoff, 1994;Ghosh, 1984;Lay et al., 1997).

Role of Sludge Moisture in Gas Releasing
As mentioned before, moisture content of sludge played vital role in gas releasing, particularly cassava factory sludge because of its structure being composed of more carbohydrate.From the previous statement, the field fresh weight of sludge which belonged to the original moisture content (W3) as taken at the sampling site was shown as the most probable factor to release gas from both the oxidation pond and UASB sludge.Following such statement, the 200 g oven-dry weight of both sludge were used to determine the gas releasing and found the product for the ninth and tenth day of cassava factory sludge through UASB wastewater treatment system and oxidation pond for treated community wastewater, respectively (Figure 3).The experimental results showed the amount of gas product from oxidation pond sludge (1.80 ml/g oven-dry weight) lower than the amount of gas that released from cassava factory sludge (3.25 ml/g oven-dry weight) due to less C, H, N, sulfate, and carbohydrate which are the main structure of sludge.Anyway, no matter the moisture was dewatered or adding to get wet sludge, the released gas was evidently reduced almost about 50 % of field moisture samples as illustrated in Figure 6 and Table 2.

Conclusion
For serving satisfaction on the concept of zero waste management and bioenergy recovery, the Royal-LERD sludge that obtained from oxidation pond of the community wastewater treatment under the Thailand King's initiative nature-by-nature process can be fermented for producing gas in terms of comparison to the cassava factory sludge as obtained from UASB system under anaerobic processes.Some necessary chemicals were analyzed from field fresh sludge for determining moisture and gas producing.Much more moisture content found in the cassava factory sludge about 11 % oven-dry weight and 7 % for oxidation pond sludge because of higher content of C, H, and N as the same trend as BOD, TKN, ammonia, nitrate, and sulfide.In the same manner, the sludge fermentation can directly produce gas that showing higher amount of gas from the cassava factory sludge (3.25 ml/g) than the oxidation pond sludge (1.80 ml/g).However, the fresh field sludge was indicated as the most maximum gas production rather than dewatering and adding some more water before fermenting for gas producing.
Figure sludge as

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Accumulate gas releasing from moisture content variation of (a) oxidation pond sludge under nature-by-nature process and (b) cassava factory sludge as obtained from UASB anaerobic process

Table 1 .
Sludge oven-dry weight, properties, moisture content, elements of the Royal-LERD project and cassava factory including water quality and separated biogas

Table 2 .
Role of moisture content in gas releasing from sludge of oxidation pond and cassava factory UASB tank