The cell membranes of microbes in WAS are extremely resilient. This severely limits their breakdown to biogas in anaerobic digesters. MicroSludge destroys the membranes of these microbes in an efficient and economical way. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images below show WAS before and after MicroSludge.
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The SEM image above shows intact bacterial microbes magnified 20,000 times. The image below shows the same microbes following MicroSludge.
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The above SEM shows that the cell membranes of WAS have been destroyed by MicroSludge and the liquid cellular contents (the “cytoplasm”) have been released, ready for digestion. This accelerates digester performance.
With conventional anaerobic digestion, typically only 20 to 30% of WAS is converted to biogas. With MicroSludge pre-treatment prior to anaerobic digestion, WAS is more efficiently converted into biogas.
The extent of digester performance improvement with MicroSludge cannot be generalized since it depends on many factors. With MicroSludge, volatile solids reduction of WAS up to 90% have been observed.
