Electrogenerated singlet oxygen and reactive chlorine species enhancing volatile fatty acids production from co-fermentation of waste activated sludge and food waste: The key role of metal oxide coated electrodes

Electrochemical pretreatment (EPT) has shown to be superior in improving acidogenic co-fermentation (Co-AF) of waste activated sludge (WAS) and food waste (FW) for volatile fatty acids (VFAs). However, the influence of EPT electrode materials on the production of electrogenerated oxidants (such as singlet oxygen (¹O₂) and reactive chlorine species (RCS)), as well as their effects on properties of electrodes, the microbial community structure and functional enzymes remain unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of various metal oxide coated electrodes (i.e., Ti/PbO₂, Ti/Ta₂O₅-IrO₂, Ti/SnO₂-RuO₂, and Ti/IrO₂-RuO₂) on EPT and subsequent Co-AF of WAS-FW. The results showed that EPT with Ti/PbO₂, Ti/Ta₂O₅-IrO₂, Ti/SnO₂-RuO₂ and Ti/IrO₂-RuO₂ electrodes generated 165.3–848.2 mg Cl₂/L of RCS and 5.643 × 10¹¹–3.311 × 10¹² spins/mm³ of ¹O₂, which significantly enhanced the solubilization and biodegradability of WAS-FW by 106.4 %–233.6 % and 177.3 %–481.8 %, respectively. Especially with Ti/Ta₂O₅-IrO₂ as the electrode material, an appropriate residual RCS (2.0–10.4 mg Cl₂/L) remained in Co-AF step, resulted in hydrolytic and acidogenic bacteria (e.g., Prevotella_7, accounting for 78.9 %) gradually become dominant rather than methanogens (e.g., Methanolinea and Methanothrix) due to their different tolerance to residual RCS. Meanwhile, the functional gene abundances of hydrolytic and acidogenic enzymes increased, while the methanogenic enzymes deceased. Consequently, this reactor produced the highest VFAs up to 545.5 ± 36.0 mg COD/g VS, which was 101.8 % higher than that of the Control (without EPT). Finally, the economic analysis and confirmatory experiments further proved the benefits of WAS-FW Co-AF with EPT.