Special Issue "Sewage Sludge Treatment and Reuse"
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2020) | Viewed by 26835
Special Issue Editors

Interests: water and wastewater treatment; biological processes; water reuse; industrial waste management; life cycle impact assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Interests: wastewater treatment, processes and technologies; anaerobic digestion processes; energy optimization in wastewater treatment plants; mathematical modelling of biological processes
Special Issue Information
Dear colleagues,
Traditional processes for the treatment of wastewater generate large volumes of primary and secondary sludge that are collectively termed sewage sludge. To give an idea of the amounts of sludge generated in a wastewater treatment plant treating municipal wastewaters, it can be pointed out that the specific production of only secondary sludge is presently in the order of 22–30 g VS/inhabitant/day.
Since both kinds of sludge contain decomposable organic matter, pathogens, harmful insect eggs, and possibly diverse pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, furans, heavy metals, etc.), innovative and cost-effective treatment is a prerequisite for the safe and environmentally friendly management of sewage sludge. Furthermore, several studies have demonstrated that sludge management costs account for approximately 50%–60% of the total operating costs of a wastewater treatment plant.
This Special Issue focuses on treatments of sewage sludge chiefly intended for reuse, resource recovery, or energy valorization, and encourages contributions that refer to:
- biorefinery and resource recovery approaches aimed at extracting value-added products (such as, but not limited to, enzymes, bioplastics, biopesticides, proteins) and nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous) from sewage sludge, even in the framework of a circular economy concept, and control options for metal elements and micropollutants;
- energy recovery routes, such as anaerobic digestion (including pre- and intermediate treatments), incineration, pyrolysis, gasification, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and enhanced digestion using microbial fuel cells, along with their comparative evaluation, to measure their suitability for different sludge compositions and their resource availability.
Original research papers and critical reviews will be considered. All scales of application will be well received.
Prof. Dr. Barbara Ruffino
Dr. Giuseppe Campo
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- primary and waste-activated sludge
- sludge-to-energy processes
- anaerobic digestion
- pre-, intermediate, and post-treatments
- incineration
- pyrolysis, gasification, and hydrothermal carbonization
- agricultural reuse
- microbial fuel cells
- nutrient recovery
- biorefinery