Synergetic conditioning via oxalic acid enhanced Fe/CaO and skeleton construct to achieve deep dewatering of sewage sludge.

Extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) with highly hydrophilic groups and sludge with high compressibility are determined sludge dewaterability. Herein, Fe catalyzed calcium peroxide (CaO) assisted by oxalic acid (OA) Fenton-like process combined with coal slime was applied to improve sludge dewaterability. Results demonstrated that the sludge treated by 0.45/1/1.1-OA/Fe/CaO mM/g DS, the water content (W), specific resistance to filtration and capillary suction time dropped to 53.01%, 24.3 s and 1.2 × 10 m/kg, respectively. Under coal slime ratio as 0.6, W and compressibility were further reduced to 42.72% and 0.66, respectively. The hydroxyl radicals generated by OA/Fe/CaO under near-neutral pH layer by layer collapsed EPS, resulting in the degradation and migration of inner releasing components and the exposure of inner sludge flocs skeleton. The hydrophilic tryptophan-like protein of TB-EPS were degraded into aromatic protein of S-EPS and exposed inner hydrophobic sites. The protein secondary structures were transformed by destroying hydrophilic functional groups, which were attributed to the reducing α-helix ratio and reconstructing β-sheet. Moreover, coal slime as the skeleton builder lowered compressibility and formed more macropores to increase the filterability of pre-oxidized sludge for the higher intensity of rigid substances. This study deepened the understanding of OA enhanced Fenton-like system effects on sludge dewaterability and proposed a cost-effective and synergistic waste treatment strategy in sludge dewatering.