Possible Uses for Sludge from Drinking Water Treatment Plants
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 3
Abstract
Sludge from drinking water treatment plants is usually disposed of in landfill sites as nonhazardous waste. However, a review of the legislation at European, Spanish, and regional levels identifies uncertainty regarding this type of waste. For example, it is unclear whether the drinking water sludge can be sent to inert landfill sites, which would be less expensive, or whether it could be reused for other purposes. According to Article 5 of Spanish Law 22/2011 on waste and contaminated soil, various physicochemical and biological parameters must be determined before alternative uses can be established. At present, sludge from drinking water treatment plants is wrongly associated with sludge from wastewater treatment plants. In this study, parameters of the sludge produced in drinking water treatment plants that may lead to a new waste status for the same are analyzed. The principal problems that may limit its reuse are its low organic matter and high silica contents.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a financial project of the Taibilla Canal Confederation, an entity of the Ministry of Spanish Agriculture Food and Environment.
References
Babatunde, A. O., and Zhao, Y. Q. (2007). “Constructive approaches towards water treatment works sludge management: An international review of beneficial re-uses.” Crit. Rev. Environ. Sci. Technol., 37(2), 129–164.
Blaise, C., Berminghan, N., and Van Coillie, R. (1985). “The integrated ecotoxicological approach to assessment of ecotoxicity.” Water Qual. Bull., 10(1), 3–7.
Blakemore, R., Chandler, R., Surrey, T., Ogilvie, D., and Walmsley, N. (1998). Management of water treatment plant residuals in New Zealand, Water Supply Managers’ Group, New Zealand Water and Wastes Association, Auckland, New Zealand.
Dassanayake, K. B., Jayasinghe, G. Y., Surapaneni, A., and Hetherington, C. (2015). “A review on alum sludge reuse with special reference to agricultural applications and future challenges.” Waste Manage., 38, 321–335.
Elangovan, C., and Subramanian, K. (2011). “Reuse of alum sludge in clay brick manufacturing.” Water Sci. Technol., 11(3), 333–341.
Fytili, D., and Zabaniotou, A. (2008). “Utilization of sewage sludge in EU application of old and new methods—A review.” Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev., 12(1), 116–140.
Georgantas, D. A., and Grigoropoulou, H. P. (2005). “Phosphorus removal from synthetic and municipal wastewater using spent alum sludge.” Water Sci. Technol., 52(10–11), 525–532.
Kelessidis, A., and Stasinakis, A. S. (2012). “Review: Comparative study of the methods used for treatment and final disposal of sewage sludge in European countries.” Waste Manage., 32(6), 1186–1195.
Krogstad, T., Sogn, T. A., Asdal, A. S., and Sæbø, A. (2005). “Influence of chemically and biologically stabilized sewage sludge on plant-available phosphorus in soil.” Ecol. Eng., 25(1), 51–60.
Kwak, D. H., and Lee, K. C. (2015). “Effect of floated sludge recycling on phosphorus removal in dissolved air flotation.” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. Water Manage., 168(6), 270–279.
Mahdy, A. M., Elkhatib, E. A., Fathi, N. O., and Lin, Z. Q. (2009). “Effects of coapplication of biosolids and water treatment residuals on corn growth and bioavailable phosphorus and aluminium in alkaline soils in Egypt.” J. Environ. Qual., 38(4), 1501–1510.
Maiden, P., Hearn, M. T. W., Boysen, R. I., Chier, P., Warnecke, M., and Jackson, W. R. (2015). “Alum sludge re-use, investigation (10OS-42) prepared by GHD and Centre for Green Chemistry (Monash University) for the Smart Water Fund.” ACTEW Water and Seawater, Melbourne, Australia.
Pan, J. R., Huang, C., and Lin, S. (2004). “Reuse of fresh water sludge in cement making.” Water Sci. Technol., 50(9), 183–188.
Passarini, K. C., Pereira, M. A., Farias, T. M. B., Calarge, F. A., and Santana, C. C. (2014). “Assessment of the viability and sustainability of integrated waste management system for the city of Campinas (Brazil), by means of ecological cost accounting.” J. Cleaner Prod., 65, 479–488.
Smith, K. M., Fowler, G. D., Pullket, S., and Graham, N. J. D. (2009). “Sewage sludge-based adsorbents: A review of their production, properties and use in water treatment applications.” Water Res., 43(10), 2569–2594.
SPSS Version 20 [Computer software]. IBM, Armonk, NY.
Tantawy, M. A. (2015). “Characterization and pozzolanic properties of calcined alum sludge.” Mater. Res. Bull., 61, 415–421.
Teixeira, S. T., de Melo, W. J., and Silva, E. T. (2007). “Plant nutrients in a degraded soil treated with water treatment sludge and cultivated with grasses and leguminous plants.” Soil Biol. Biochem., 39(6), 1348–1354.
Wang, L. Y., et al. (2014). “Utilization of alum sludge for producing aluminum hydroxide and layered double hydroxide.” Ceram. Int., 40(10), 15503–15514.
Yang, L., Wei, J., Zhang, Y., Wang, J., and Wang, D. (2014). “Reuse of acid coagulant-recovered drinking waterworks sludge residual to remove phosphorus from wastewater.” Appl. Surface Sci., 305, 337–346.
Zhao, Y. Q., Babatunde, A. O., Hu, Y. S., Kumar, J. L. G., and Zhao, X. H. (2011). “Pilot field-scale demonstration of a novel alum sludge-based constructed wetland system for enhanced wastewater treatment.” Process Biochem., 46(1), 278–283.
Zhao, Y. Q., and Yang, Y. (2010). “Extending the use of dewatered alum sludge as a P-trapping material in effluent purification: Study on two separate water treatment sludges.” J. Environ. Sci. Health Part A, 45(10), 1234–1239.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 14, 2016
Accepted: Aug 8, 2016
Published online: Oct 28, 2016
Published in print: Mar 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Mar 28, 2017
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.