Potential catalytic effect of ion copper bimetallic nanoparticles on digestion of anaerobic activated sludge at high iron concentrations

Throughout this research, prepared zero valent iron copper nanoparticles (Fe^0/Cu) was used in order to investigate the methane generation and the degradation of anaerobic activated sludge. The prepared Fe^0/Cu in different high concentrations (0.5, 1.5 and 3 g/L) were added to laboratory scale bioreactors to check its biogas generation efficiency compared with blank bioreactor. Furthermore, the organic matter degradation process was also studied by profiling the soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD). The results show that the Fe^0/Cu bimetallic particles facilitate the catalytic reactivity by increasing the generated biogas volume and methane yield. The total generated biogas increased by 235.6% for the bioreactors exposed with 1.5 g/L of Fe^0/Cu particles compared with blank. Collectively, results suggest that Fe^0/Cu was promising remediation of domestic activated sludge and consequently Fe^0/Cu system can be proposed as a cost-effective addition for the anaerobic digesters.