Sludge minimisation technologies

The treatment and disposal of excess sludge represents a bottleneck of wastewater treatment plants all over the world, due to environmental, economic, social and legal factors. There is therefore a growing interest in developing technologies to reduce the wastewater sludge generation. The goal of this paper is to present the state-of-the-art of current minimisation techniques for reducing sludge production in biological wastewater treatment processes. An overview of the main technologies is given considering three different strategies: The first option is to reduce the production of sludge by introducing in the wastewater treatment stage additional stages with a lower cellular yield coefficient compared to the one corresponding to the activated sludge process (lysis-cryptic growth, uncoupling and maintenance metabolism, predation on bacteria, anaerobic treatment). The second choice is to act on the sludge stage. As anaerobic digestion is the main process in sewage sludge treatment for reducing and stabilising the organic solids, two possibilities can be considered: introducing a pre-treatment process before the anaerobic reaction (physical, chemical or biological pre-treatments), or modifying the digestion configuration (two-stage and temperature-phased anaerobic digestion, anoxic gas flotation). And, finally, the last minimisation strategy is the removal of the sludge generated in the activated sludge plant (incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, wet air oxidation, supercritical water oxidation).     

LCA application to integrated waste management planning in Gipuzkoa (Spain)

Goal, Scope and Background  Gipuzkoa is a department of the Vasque Country (Spain) with a population of about 700,000 people. By the year 2000 approximately 85% of municipal solid waste in this area was managed by landfilling, and only 15% was recycled. Due to environmental law restrictions and landfill capacity being on its limit, a planning process was initiated by the authorities. LCA was used, from an environmental point of view, to assess 7 possible scenarios arising from the draft Plan for the 2016 time horizon. Main Features  In each scenario, 9 waste flows are analysed: rest waste, paper and cardboard, glass containers, light packaging, organic-green waste, as well as industrial/commercial wood, metals and plastics, and wastewater sludge. Waste treatments range from recycling to energy recovery and landfilling. Results  Recycling of the waste flows separated at the source (paper and cardboard, glass, light packaging, organic-green waste, wood packaging, metals and plastics) results in net environmental benefits caused by the substitution of primary materials, except in water consumption. These benefits are common to the 7 different scenarios analysed. However, some inefficiencies are detected, mainly the energy consumption in collection and transport of low density materials, and water consumption in plastic recycling. The remaining flows, mixed waste and wastewater sludge, are the ones causing the major environmental impacts, by means of incineration, landfilling of partially stabilised organic material, as well as thermal drying of sludge. With the characterisation results, none of the seven scenarios can be clearly identified as the most preferable, although, due to the high recycling rates expected by the Plan, net environmental benefits are achieved in 9 out of 10 impact categories in all scenarios when integrated waste management is assessed (the sum of the 9 flows of waste). Finally, there are no relevant differences between scenarios concerning the number of treatment plants considered. Nevertheless, only the effects on transportation impacts were assessed in the LCA, since the plant construction stage was excluded from the system boundaries. Conclusions  The results of the study show the environmental importance of material recycling in waste management, although the recycling schemes assessed can be improved in some aspects. It is also important to highlight the environmental impact of incineration and landfilling of waste, as well as thermal drying of sludge using fossil fuels. One of the main findings of applying LCA to integrated waste management in Gipuzkoa is the fact that the benefits of high recycling rates can compensate for the impacts of mixed waste and wastewater sludge. Recommendations and Outlook  Although none of the scenarios can be clearly identified as the one having the best environmental performance, the authorities in Gipuzkoa now have objective information about the future scenarios, and a multidisciplinary panel could be formed in order to weight the impacts if necessary. In our opinion, LCA was successfully applied in Gipuzkoa as an environmental tool for decision making.     

LCA application to Russian Conditions

The environmental impact assessment existing in the Russian Federation at the present moment cannot provide potential scenarios of consequences for the environment from examined processes, since its goal is to calculate the money equivalent of emissions to the environment. Also, it cannot help the environmental specialist to choose the most environmentally sustainable scenario or process, proceeding from the whole life cycle of the object, because it is usually performed only for the use phase of an object. This study also aims to show possibilities for applying LCA methodology, as accepted in the ISO standards series 14040, and as applied to Russian conditions. The main purpose was to investigate a possibility of using the existing environmental impact assessment as the inventory stage in the LCA. As the minor goal, normalisation and weighting factor data for the Russian Federation were calculated on the basis of energy consumption extrapolation. In this paper, the environmental impacts are associated with a sewage wastewater facility. The inventory analysis is performed with data obtained from the MosvodokanalNIIproject (Moscow Research Institute for sewage wastewater treatment facilities) and supplemented with the SimaPro 5.0 database (the Netherlands). The environmental impact categories included and discussed in this study are eutrophication, global warming, landfill, acidification, ozone layer depletion and photochemical ozone creation. This study was performed for several design alternatives or scenarios of the wastewater facility. According to the LCA performed in this study, the most environmentally sustainable scenario is that which has the most effective and complicated treatment of sewage water and sludge.     

生物淋滤技术在去除污泥中重金属的应用

利用微生物方法去除污泥中重金属（生物淋滤法）具有成本低,去除效率高,脱毒后污泥脱水性能好等优点,近年来在国际上备受关注,生物淋滤法采用的主要细菌为氧化亚铁硫杆菌（Thiobacillus ferrooxidans)和氧化硫硫杆菌（Thiobacillus thiooxidans),在其作用下,污泥中以难溶性金属硫化物被氧化成金属硫酸盐而溶出,通过固液分离即可达到去除重金属的目的,污泥的生物淋滤效果受温度、O2和CO2浓度,起始pH、污泥种类与浓度、底物种类与浓度、抑制因子、Fe^3 浓度等的影响,较为详细地介绍了生物淋滤法的作用机理及高效去除污泥中重金属的操作程序,并对其在环境污染治理方面的应用前景作了分析。     

Environmental analysis of producing biochar and energy recovery from pulp and paper mill biosludge

Sweden is one of the largest exporters of pulp and paper products in the world. It follows that huge quantities of sludge rich in carbonaceous organic material and containing heavy metals are generated. This paper carried out a comparative environmental analysis of three different technologies, which can be adopted to produce biochar and recover energy from the biosludge, using landfilling as the reference case. These three thermochemical biosludge management systems—using incineration, pyrolysis, and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC)—were modeled using life cycle assessment (LCA). Heat generated in the incineration process (System A) was considered to be for captive consumption within the kraft pulp mills. It was assumed that the biochars—pyrochar and hydrochar—produced from pyrolysis (System B) and HTC (System C), respectively, were added to the forest soils. The LCA results show that all the alternative systems considerably improve the environmental performance of biosludge management, relative to landfilling. For all systems, there are net reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (–0.89, –1.43, and –1.13 tonnes CO₂‐equivalent per tonne dry matter biosludge in Systems A, B, and C, respectively). System B resulted in the lowest potential eutrophication and terrestrial ecotoxicity impacts, whereas System C had the least acidification potential. The results of this analysis show that, from an environmental point of view, biochar soil amendment as an alternative method for handling pulp and paper mill biosludge is preferable to energy recovery. However, an optimal biochar system needs to factor in the social and economic contexts as well.     

Life cycle assessment of a pyrolysis/gasification plant for hazardous paint waste

Goal, Scope and Background Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) remains an important tool in Dutch waste management policies. In 2002 the new National Waste Management Plan 2002–2012 (NWMP) became effective. It was supported by some 150 LCA studies for more than 20 different waste streams. The LCA results provided a benchmark level for new waste management technologies. Although not new, operational techniques using combined pyrolysis/gasification are still fairly rare in Europe. The goal of this study is to determine the environmental performance of the only full scale pyrolysis/gasification plant in the Netherlands and to compare it with more conventional techniques such as incineration. The results of the study support the process of obtaining environmental permits. Methods In this study we used an impact assessment method based on the guidelines described by the Centre of Environmental Science (CML) of Leiden University. The functional unit is defined as treatment of 1 ton of collected hazardous waste (paint packaging waste). Similar to the NWMP, not only normalized scores are presented but also 7 aggegated scores. All interventions from the foreground process (land use, emissions, final waste) are derived directly from the site with the exception of emissions to soil which were calculated. Interventions are accounted to each of the different waste streams by physical relations. Data from background processes are taken from the IVAM LCA database 4.0 mostly originating from the Swiss ETH96 database and adapted to the Dutch situation. Allocation was avoided by using system enlargement. The study has been peer reviewed by an external expert. Results and Discussion It was possible to determine an environmental performance for the pyrolysis/ gasification of paint packaging waste. The Life Cycle Inventory was mainly hampered by the uncertainty occurred with estimated air emissions. Here several assumptions had to be made because several waste inputs and two waste treatment installations profit from one flue gas cleaning treatment thus making it difficult to allocate the emission values from the flue gasses. Compared to incineration in a rotary kiln, pyrolysis/gasification of hazardous waste showed better scores for most of the considered impact categories. Only for the impact categories biodiversity and life support the incineration option proved favorable due to a lower land use. Several impact categories had significant influence on the conclusions: acidification, global warming potential, human toxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity. The first three are related to a better energy efficiency for pyrolysis/gasification leading to less fossil energy consumption. Terrestrial ecotoxicity in this case is related to specific emissions of mercury and chromium (III). A sensitivity analysis has been performed as well. It was found that the environmental performance of the gasification technique is sensitive to the energy efficiency that can be reached as well as the choice for the avoided fossil energy source. In this study a conservative choice for diesel oil was made whereas a choice for heavy or light fuel oil would further improve the environmental profile. Conclusions Gasification of hazardous waste has a better environmental performance compared to the traditional incineration in rotary kilns mainly due to the high energy efficiency. As was determined by sensitivity analysis the differences in environmental performance are significant. Improvement options for a better performance are a decrease of process emissions (especially mercury) and a further improvement of the energy balance by decreasing the electricity consumption for shredders and oxygen consumption or making more use of green electricity. Recommendations and Perspectives Although the life cycle inventory was sufficiently complete, still some assumptions had to be made in order to establish sound mass balances on the level of individual components and substances. The data on input of waste and output of emissions and final waste were not compatible. It was recommended that companies put more emphasis on data storage accounted to particular waste streams. This is even more relevant since more companies in the future are expected to include life cycle impacts in their environmental performance.     

城市污泥复合肥的肥效及其对小麦重金属吸收的影响

通过盆栽和大田试验,初步探讨了污泥复合肥种植小麦的肥效及其对小麦重金属吸收的影响。试验结果表明,污泥复合肥对小麦的增产效果和土壤的增肥效果明显优于化肥,等同于市售复合肥,它能促进植株生长发育,提高小麦产量,对土壤速效养分的积累有明显的促进作用;污泥复合肥处理的小麦籽粒中重金属Cu、Zn、Pb、Cd的含量均在国家食品卫生标准范围内。     

Critical review of the influences of nanoparticles on biological wastewater treatment and sludge digestion

Nanoparticles (NPs), with at least one dimension less than 100?nm, are substantially employed in consumer and industrial products due to their specific physical and chemical properties. The wide uses of engineered NPs inevitably cause their release into the environment, especially wastewater treatment plants. Therefore, it is essential to systematically assess their potential impact on biological wastewater treatment and subsequent sewage sludge digestion. This review aims to provide such support. First, this paper reviews the recent advances on the analytical developments and nano–bio interface of NPs in wastewater and sewage sludge treatment. The effects of NPs on biological wastewater treatment and sewage sludge digestion and related mechanisms are discussed in detail. Finally, the key questions that need to be answered in the future are pointed out, which include on-line revelation of the changes of NPs in sewage and sludge environments, in situ assessment of the variations of microorganisms involved in these biological systems after they are exposed to NPs. Differentiation of the contribution of individual toxicity mechanisms to these systems, and the identification of under what conditions the nanoparticle-induced toxicity will be increased or decreased are also considered.     

Evaluation of phosphorus in thermally converted sewage sludge: P pools and availability to wheat

Plant and Soil - Dried sewage sludge (SS) and the by-products of four SS thermal conversion processes (pyrolysis, incineration and two types of gasification) were investigated for phosphorus (P)...     

Understanding the properties of aerobic sludge granules as hydrogels

Aerobic sludge granules are larger, denser microbial aggregates than activated sludge flocs with a smoother and more regular surface, which facilitates greater wastewater treatment intensity. Factors important in their growth are still poorly understood, which is an impediment to the construction and operation of full-scale aerobic sludge granule processes. Data in this article obtained with granules treating an abattoir wastewater provide evidence that aerobic sludge granules are hydrogels. The results also demonstrate a method for characterizing macromolecular associations. The rheological profile of these granules was found to be analogous with that of typical polymer gels. Water uptake or swelling reflects an equilibrium between granule elastic modulus and osmotic pressure, whereby uptake is increased by reducing solute concentration or the elastic modulus. A weakening of the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) matrix as demonstrated with mechanical spectroscopy was induced by several environmental factors including temperature, pH and ionic strength. Uniform and elastic deformation was observed at low strain. Enzymatic degradation studies indicate that proteins and alpha-polysaccharides were the major granule structural materials. The aerobic sludge granules in the current study were therefore protein-polysaccharide composite physical hydrogels. While aerobic sludge granules treating an abattoir wastewater are used as a case study, many of the fundamental principles detailed here are relevant to other granulation processes. The paradigm established in this study can potentially be applied to better understand the formation of aerobic sludge granules and thus overcome a hurdle in the acceptance of aerobic sludge granulation as an alternative to more traditional wastewater treatment processes.     

Environmental performance of a municipal wastewater treatment plant

Goal, Scope and Background  Nowadays, every strategy must be developed taking into account the global impact on the environment; if this aspect is forgotten, a change of environmental loads or their effect will be caused and no reduction will be attained. For instance, a wastewater treatment plant (WWIP), which is considereda priori as an ecological treatment system, gives rise to an environmental impact due to its energy consumption, use of chemical compounds, emissions to the atmosphere and sludge production, the post-treatment of which will also have diverse environmental effects. The goal of this study is to evaluate the potential environmental impact corresponding to a municipal WW1P and to identify the hot spots associated with the process. Methods  In this study, the Centre of Environmental Science (CML) of Leiden University methodology has been considered to quantify the potential environmental impact associated with the system under study. A comprehensive analysis of the WWTP was evaluated for the physico-chemical characterisation of the wastewaters as well as the inventory of all the inputs (energy, chemical compounds, ...) and outputs (emissions to air, water, soil and solid waste generation) associated with the global process. Regarding Life Cycle Inventory Assessment, SimaPro 5.0 was used and in particular CML factors (updated in 2002) were chosen for characterisation and normalisation stages. Results and Discussion  A comprehensive inventory of empirical data from water, sludge and gas flows during 2000 and 2001 was obtained. Two impact categories arise due to their significance: eutrophication and terrestrial ecotoxicity. Consequently, the aspects to be minimised in order to reduce the environmental impact of the system are the pollutant load at the watercourse discharge (mainly NH₃, PO₄ ^[3- and COD, even when all of them are below legal limits) and the emissions to soil (mainly Cr, Hg and Zn, even when they are present in low concentrations) when the sludge is used for agricultural application. Conclusions  As far as the environmental impact is concerned, differentiation between humid and dry season is not required as results are practically equal for both situations. Water discharge and sludge application to land have turned out to be the main contributors in the environmental performance of a WWTP. Regarding the former, the removal of nitrogen by means of a nitrification-denitrification system coupled to conventional biological aerobic treatment implies a high environmental impact reduction and, as for the latter, bearing in mind the proposed legislation, heavy metals as well as pathogens are supposed to be the key parameters to define the most adequate treatment strategies for the generated sludge. Recommendations and Outlook  This study can serve as a basis for future studies that can apply a similar policy to a great number of wastewater facilities. Besides, features such as different treatment systems and capacities can provide additional information with the final aim of including the environmental vector in the decision-making process when the operation of a WWTP is intended to be optimised. Moreover, sludge must also be a focus of attention due to the expected increase and its major contribution to the global environmental impact of a WWTP, which can determine other treatment alternatives.     

Kinetic studies of overlapping pyrolysis reactions in industrial waste activated sludge

A sludge pyrolytic kinetics model was established in this study. Two types of sewage sludge from different industrial wastewater treatment plant produced different DTG (Derivative Thermogravimetry) shapes with an overlapping pattern. The multi-heating rate method was conducted to evaluate the kinetics for obtaining reasonable pyrolysis mechanisms and DTG curves were divided into several peaks using the Lorentz fitting method based on the composition of the sludge and the desire for precision. The peaks formed corresponded to the pyrolysis reactions of volatile matter, microbe cells, proteins, inorganic substances and char respectively, which can be reasonably explained based on the results from the flue gas analyzer and the chemical analysis. Two types of sewage sludge were found to have similar pyrolysis mechanisms. Reasonable reasons were also given to explain the distortion and lag observed in the DTG curves and pyrolysis mechanism.     

Correlation between bacterial indicators and bacteriophages in sewage and sludge

The use of bacteriophages as potential indicators of faecal pollution has recently been studied. The correlation of the number of bacterial indicators and the presence of three groups of bacteriophages, namely somatic coliphages (SOMCPH), F-RNA-specific phages (FRNAPH) and phages of Bacteroides fragilis (BFRPH), in raw and treated wastewater and sludge is presented in this study. Raw and treated wastewater and sewage sludge samples from two wastewater treatment plants in Athens were collected on a monthly basis, over a 2-year period, and analysed for total coliforms, Escherichia coli, intestinal enterococci and the three groups of bacteriophages. A clear correlation between the number of bacterial indicators and the presence of bacteriophages was observed. SOMCPH may be used as additional indicators, because of their high densities and resistance to various treatment steps.     

剩余污泥资源化利用新工艺研究进展

随着城市化进程加速, 污水处理厂剩余污泥大量产生, 如何对其进行处理并有效资源化利用成为广泛关注的问题。文章在综述我国城市污水处理厂剩余污泥特征、相应处理与综合利用方法的基础上, 进一步综述了污泥干化芦苇床、人工湿地、微生物燃料电池以及相关组合工艺等剩余污泥资源化利用新工艺。总结了各种新工艺的优势以及当前尚未解决的关键问题, 对未来新工艺的潜在应用进行了展望, 以期开发出低能耗、低成本、高效率、绿色生态的技术, 真正实现剩余污泥的减量化、无害化、稳定化和资源化。     

城市污泥农用对植物-土壤系统的影响

城市污泥的合理处置是目前资源与环境科学研究领域中的重要课题之一.城市污泥因富含大量的有机质和有效营养成分,对农业土壤肥力、土壤物理结构和农业生产均有一定的积极促进作用,使得污泥农用成为可能.但城市污泥中含有的重金属、有机污染物等有害物质尤其是重金属,成为污泥农用处置的瓶颈.为提高我国城市污泥的农业资源化利用效率和减少污染物造成的负面效应,本文就国内外施用城市污泥对植物-土壤互作系统的影响及过程进行了综述,为进一步提高污泥利用效率提供理论依据和科学指导.     

城市污泥在矿山废弃地复垦的应用探讨

Based on the analysis of the existing problems in reclaimingabandoned mining land and their negative effect on the ecological environment,and in view of the limited factors to reclaim abandoned mining land,this paper puts forward the suggestions of using sewage sludge as an alternative in mining land reclamation.Application of sewage sludge in reclamation has beneficial effects, such as increasing organic matter content, preventing soil erosion,recovering vegetation,and promoting microbial population and its activities.Unfavorable factors including heavy metal and organic pollutant for applications of sewage sludge and their countermeasures are also discussed.     

Study of microbial community structures in UASB sludge treating municipal wastewater by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 16S rDNA

The structures of microbial communities in lab-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors for treating municipal wastewater with different ratios of COD soluble/COD total were studied using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rRNA genes.The microbial structure of the inoculum sludge obtained from a full-scale UASB reactor of treating potato processing wastewater was compared with the structures of sludges collected from three lab-scale UASB reactors after eight months feeding with raw municipal wastewater, with CEPS (chemically enhanced primary sedimentation) pretreated municipal wastewater, and with a synthetic municipal sewage, respectively. Computer-aided numerical analysis of the DGGE fingerprints showed that the bacterial community underwent major changes. The sludges for treating raw and CEPS pretreated wastewater had very similar bacterial and archaeal communities (82%and 96% similarity) but were different from that for treating the synthetic sewage. Hence, despite similar % COD in the particulate form in the synthetic and the real wastewater, the two wastewaters were selected for different microbial communities. Prominent DGGE bands of Bacteria and Archaea were purified and sequenced. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of the dominant archaeal bands found in the inoculum, and UASB sludge fed with raw sewage, CEPS pretreated wastewater, and synthetic sewage were closely associated with Methanosaeta concilii. In the UASB sludge fed with synthetic sewage, another dominant band associated with an uncultured archaeon 39-2 was found together with M. concilii.     

Identifying Lowest‐Emission Choices and Environmental Pareto Frontiers for Wastewater Treatment Wastewater Treatment Input‐Output Model based Linear Programming

This article proposes a linear programming model that is based on the wastewater treatment input‐output model (W²IO) to identify the lowest‐emission choice among alternative feasible options for wastewater treatment; this model can be considered as an application of the waste input‐output linear programming model (WIO‐LP) to wastewater issues. Using the data of the Tokyo metropolitan W²IO table, I apply this model to obtain the optimal wastewater treatment options under alternative scenarios. The Pareto frontiers of environmental loads are derived to show the trade‐off relationships among various types of environmental load and the effect of the introduction of high‐temperature incineration of dewatered sludge on the generation of environmental loads. The main conclusion of the study is that when all three types of environmental load (landfill level, global warming potential, and chemical oxygen demand) are considered, the introduction of high‐temperature incineration causes the widening of the Pareto frontier of environmental loads and also causes it to move closer to the origin.     

Life-Cycle Assessment of Biosolids Processing Options

Biosolids, also known as sewage sludge, are reusable organic materials separated from sewage during treatment. They can be managed in a variety of ways. Different options for biosolids handling in Sydney, Australia, are compared in this study using life-cycle assessment. Two key comparisons are made: of system scenarios (scenario 1 is local dewatering and lime amendment; scenario 2 is a centralized drying system) and of technologies (thermal drying versus lime amendment). The environmental issues addressed are energy consumption, global warming potential (GWP), and human toxicity potential (HTP).
Scenario 2 would consume 24% more energy than scenario 1. This is due to the additional electricity for pumping and particularly the petrochemical methane that supplements biogas in the drier. A centralized system using the same technologies as scenario 1 has approximately the same impacts. The GWP and HTP of the different scenarios do not differ significantly.
The assessment of technology choices shows significant differences. The ample supply of endogenous biogas at North Head sewage treatment plant for the drying option allows reductions, relative to the lime-amendment option, of 68% in energy consumption, 45% in GWP, and 23% in HTP.
Technology choices have more significant influence on the environmental profile of biosolids processing than does the choice of system configurations. Controlling variables for environmental improvement are the selection of biogas fuel, avoidance of coalsourced electrical energy, minimization of trucking distances, and raising the solids content of biosolids products.     

生物废水处理系统的细胞自动机模型

建立了活性污泥处理生物废水的细胞自动机模型,对活性污泥生物量与有机物浓度动态进行了研究,提出了计算活性污泥回流循环比的方法.结果表明,在Moore邻居模型下废水达标排放所需时间较Von. Neumann邻居模型少,不同生长阶段的微生物浓度波动具有时滞性.稳定期有机物浓度和生物量不受活性污泥初始浓度的影响.活性污泥处理生物废水的细胞自动机模型有助于为污水处理提供理论依据.