The cost of handling and disposal of sewage sludge is a major expense in sewage treatment. Often half of the treatment plant expense is in the purchase and maintenance of sludge handling equipment. The sludge problem becomes particularly acute with activated sludge processes because of the large volumes of waste activated sludge produced and the nature of the activated sludge itself. The object of this investigation was to conduct laboratory scale investigations of the effects of aerobic digestion on activated sludge dewatering and to attempt to determine the chemical and biological mechanisms affecting sludge filterability.

The results of this investigation showed that aerobic digestion can have a considerable effect on sludge filterability. The filterability of all sludges was improved with moderate aeration at 20° C. The degree of improvement depends on the nature of the fresh sludge, the rate of aeration during digestion, the temperature during digestion, and the time of digestion with the optimum time of digestion between four to six days.

The mechanism of filtration improvement during aerobic digestion appears to be biological in nature. Biologically produced extracellular polymeric substances are secreted by or exposed on the surface of bacteria during the endogenous phase of metabolism. These polymers cause coagulation and bridging between sludge particles, thus affecting the filtering properties. This phenomenon occurs only when oxygen is present in the system. However, the organisms responsible can survive up to four days without the artificial addition of oxygen.

A study of various operating parameters in aerobic digestion leads to some further conclusions regarding sludge filtration. Factors which have a detrimental effect on filtration are: lack of dissolved oxygen, excessive mixing, low temperature during digestion, and chlorination of sludge before filtering. Factors which do not appear to have a significant effect on filtration are: differences in dissolved oxygen concentrations above two mg per liter, and the maintenance of a neutral pH in the digester.