Water 2011, 3(2), 702-717; doi:10.3390/w3020702
Article

Sustainable and Innovative Solutions for Sewage Sludge Management

Ludovico Spinosa 1,* email, Azize Ayol 2 email, Jean-Christophe Baudez 3 email, Roberto Canziani 4 email, Pavel Jenicek 5 email, Angelique Leonard 6 email, Wim Rulkens 7 email, Guoren Xu 8 email and Lex Van Dijk 9 email
1 National Research Council (CNR) c/o Governmental Commissariat Environmental Emergencies Region Puglia, (home) Via G. Bozzi 5, 70121 Bari, Italy 2 Department of Environmental Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Dokuz Eylul University (DEU), Tinaztepe Campus, 35160 Buca, İzmir, Turkey 3 Cemagref, UR TSCF, Domaine des Palaquins, F-03150 Montoldre, France 4 DIIAR Department, Environmental Section, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy 5 Department of Water Technology and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Protection, Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, Technicka 5, 166 28 Prague 6, Czech Republic 6 Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Liège, B6 Sart Tilman, Liège, 4000, Belgium 7 Sub-Department of Environmental Technology, Wageningen University, P.O. BOX 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands 8 School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource & Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 73 Huanghe Road, Harbin, 150090, China 9 Sustec Consulting & Contracting bv, Agro Business Park 36, 6708 PW Wageningen, The Netherlands
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 16 March 2011; in revised form: 16 May 2011 / Accepted: 10 June 2011 / Published: 22 June 2011
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Science and Technology of Wastewater and Sludge Treatment)
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Abstract: Sludge produced by municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) amounts to only a few percent by volume of the processed wastewater, but its handling accounts for up to 50% of total operating costs. Moreover, the need to achieve a sustainable sludge management strategy has become of great concern. It follows that as conventional and more traditional options, such as land spreading for agricultural purposes, are progressively restricted, and often legally banned, the development of innovative systems to maximize the recovery of useful materials and/or energy is required. A change toward more sustainable procedures can be promoted through an integrated approach, including the assessment of management routes capable of maximizing the recycle/recovery benefits, through low energy impact systems, and the development of operational systems appropriate to local circumstances. Based on the above considerations, an integrated system is proposed in this paper. It includes Anaerobic digestion, Dewatering/Drying, and Pyrolysis/Gasification processes which are efficiently coupled for the recovery of products for material reuse and/or energy purposes. Such an integrated system should also allow the recovery of one or more materials, depending on the combination of processes which best fit specific local situations.
Keywords: innovation; management; recovery; sewage sludge; treatment

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Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Spinosa, L.; Ayol, A.; Baudez, J.-C.; Canziani, R.; Jenicek, P.; Leonard, A.; Rulkens, W.; Xu, G.; Van Dijk, L. Sustainable and Innovative Solutions for Sewage Sludge Management. Water 2011, 3, 702-717.

AMA Style

Spinosa L, Ayol A, Baudez J-C, Canziani R, Jenicek P, Leonard A, Rulkens W, Xu G, Van Dijk L. Sustainable and Innovative Solutions for Sewage Sludge Management. Water. 2011; 3(2):702-717.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Spinosa, Ludovico; Ayol, Azize; Baudez, Jean-Christophe; Canziani, Roberto; Jenicek, Pavel; Leonard, Angelique; Rulkens, Wim; Xu, Guoren; Van Dijk, Lex. 2011. "Sustainable and Innovative Solutions for Sewage Sludge Management." Water 3, no. 2: 702-717.

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