To properly handle sewage sludge is a problem urgent to be resolved. Anaerobic digestion (AD) of sludge can generate economically valuable methane and is a proper method to dispose sludge disposal. However, how to enhance the performance of anaerobic digestion and how to response to the release of heavy metals in the process, are the current research hotspot. Environmental biotechnology research team, IUE, CAS, has achieved the innovative research results in studying anaerobic digestion of urban sludge currently. The research found that, in the system of anaerobic digestion of sludge, adding moderate nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) and magnetite (Fe₃O₄), on one hand, can improve methane yield; On the other hand, most of the heavy metals tend to exist in sludge in more stable form. They will not largely released into biogas slurry along with the process of anaerobic digestion. So environmental risks of heavy metals are reduced. The research results are published in the journal of the water handling field: Water Research.（Suanon.F,Sun Q,Mama D,Li J,Diaou B,Yu CP.Effect of nanoscale zero-valent iron and magnetite (Fe₃O₄) on the fate of metals during anaerobic digestion of sludge. Water Research 88 (2016) 897-903）. Full text URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135415303419

About the Author: Fidele Suanon

He is doctoral student of IUE, CAS, comes from Benin, West Africa, and is dean scholarship winners of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the development of the national academy of sciences. Fidele works hard, is pleased to learning Chinese, and gets along well with the member of environmental biotechnology research team. The institute and the research team creat first-class scientific research environment for Fidele and help him solve the problem in life. At present, sewage treatment in Benin is still in the construction phase. And the technology of sewage treatment is being developed. Therefore, the team arranged Fidele to visits several urban sewage treatment plant specially. It will significantly contribute on the development of Benin sewage treatment. The example of Fidele embodies that the Chinese Academy of Sciences has trained a group of high level talents for developing countries in the future development of scientific research and education,.