Environmental Evaluation of Different Treatment Processes for Sludge from Urban Wastewater Treatments: Anaerobic Digestion versus Thermal Processes (10 pp)

✍ Scribed by Almudena Hospido; Teresa Moreira; María Martín; Miquel Rigola; Gumersindo Feijoo

• Book ID: 111726368
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 241 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0948-3349
• DOI: 10.1065/lca2005.05.210

✦ Synopsis

lost. Tar and char, co-products from pyrolysis, are good examples that were evaluated here, recycling of bottom ashes from sludge incineration or manufacture of ceramic materials from sludge are other options to be studied in the near future.

Conclusion.

During the last few years, several opinions have been declared in favour of land application, incineration or pyrolysis, but many voices have also spoken out against each one. To obtain general conclusions for an overall comparison of different post-treatment of urban wastewater sludge is not easy as there are many contradictory aspects. The most effective utilisation of sewage sludge implies both energy and material reuse, but this is not always possible. Nevertheless, we think that land application of digested sludge is an acceptable option, probably not the best but at least a good one, for sludge treatment as long as efforts are focused on the minimisation of heavy metal content in the final cake.