Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements

Stig Morling

doi:doi:10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12

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Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements

Stig Morling

Received: 8 April 2019 Accepted: 23 May 2019 Published: 10 June 2019

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Abstract

The anaerobic treatment of organic rich pollutants has a very long history within the water industry. Two major applications have been used: Treating sludge streams from midsized and large wastewater treatment plants and for industrial wastewater streams containing high concentrations of organic carbon. This paper presents the status of anaerobic digestion of sludge streams in municipal wastewater. The paper highlights both the potentials and limitations of the technology. Further the alternative or complementing HTC-technology is presented and analyzed. The constraints, limitations and options for the reuse of processed municipal sludge is accordingly pointed out. Our usage of water is found more and more complex, along with the addition of a number of synthetic agents, such as pharmaceuticals and other complex polluting agents we find that the traditionally acknowledged sludge treatment stabilization methods are not sufficient. The paper points out that the anaerobic digestion may be combined with for instance the HTC-process. In a longer perspective the HTC may even replace the current anaerobic digestion. However, the HTC-technology will raise further interesting questions: The important points that need further investigations are inter alia: 1) To further clarify the quality of reject water from the hydrochar, with respect to rest pollutants. 2) To evaluate to what extent the HTC process may become a feasible way to disintegrate pharmaceutical remains found in municipal sludge. 3) How to further enhance the ways to recover raw materials from the hydrochar, such as phosphorus and carbon. Nethertheless, the process may allow for some very promising pathways within the future municipal sludge management.

DOI	10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12
Published in	Journal of Water Resources and Ocean Science (Volume 8, Issue 2, April 2019)
Page(s)	21-27
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Sludge Digestion, Solids Retention Time, Primary Sludge, Waste Activated Sludge, SRT, Biogas Gas Production, HTC, Carbon, Phosphorus Recovery

References

[1]	Cimbritz, M., Davidsson, Å., Hey, G., Jonstrup, M., Åstrand, N. and Morling, S. (2017) “A critical study on the methane gas production in relation to an extended SRT (Solids Retention Time) in activated sludge”.
[2]	Ge. H. Q. Batstone, D. J and Keller. J. (2013)” Operating aerobic wastewater treatment at very short sludge ages enables treatment and energy recovery through anaerobic sludge digestion” Water Research, Vol. 47, 173–182.
[3]	Carlsson. M. (2015). “When and why is Pre-Treatment of Substrates for Anaerobic Digestion Useful?” Doctoral Thesis, Luleå university of Technology, ISBN 978-91-7583-377-4.
[4]	Wiechman, A., Dienemann, C., Kabbe, C., Brandt, S. and Vogel, Ines (2017) “Sewage Sludge Management in Germany”, a report study to the German Umwelt Bundesamt.
[5]	Kaschka, E. and Weyrer, S. (1999) “Phostrip Handbook”, Phostrip Abwassertechnik GmbH, Fourth edition.
[6]	Ttirici, M. M. editor (2013) “Sustainable Carbon Materials from Hydrothermal Processes”, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, ISBN 978-1-119-97539-7 (hardback).
[7]	Lucian, M. and Fiori, L. (2017) “Hydrothermal Carbonization of Waste Biomass: Process Design, Modeling, Energy Efficiency and Cost Analysis” Energies 2017, 10, 211, 18 pages.
[8]	Heilmann, S. M., Molde J. S., Timler, J. G., Wood, B. M., Mikula A. L., Vozhdayev G. V., Colosky E. C. Spokas K. A. and Valentas (2014) “Phosphorus Reclamation through a Hydro Thermal Carbonization process of Animal Manures” Environmental Science Technology 2014, 48, pp 10323 – 10329.
[9]	Björkman, E. and Morling S. (2015) “Report for Kohtla-Järve, and some development issues” a presentation for the Kohtla-Järve Vesi on sludge management questions within a technical project.
[10]	Björkman, E and Lilliestråhle, M (2016) “Increased Yield of Biogas by Post Treatment of residual sludge”, Report to the Swedish Energy Authority.
[11]	Nilsson, E. (2017) “Anaerobic digestion trials with HTC process water”, Master thesis presented at SLU, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
[12]	Ducey, T. F. and Ro, K. S. (2019) “The use of hydrothermal carbonization for the removal of pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes from animal waste” USDA-ARS, Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, 2611 West Lucas Street, Florence SC, USA.
[13]	Buttmann, T. (2017) “Industrial Scale Plant for Sewage Sludge Treatment by Hydrothermal Carbonization in Jining/China and Phosphate Recovery by TerraNova Ultra HTC Process” www.european-biosolids.com.
[14]	Björkman, E., Wirth, B. and Clemens, A. (2017) “Report to the Swedish Energy Authority within the Recovery project on determination of potential phosphorus recovery”.
[15]	Bigum, L. and Widerberg, R. (2019) Phosphorus Recovery from Sewage Sludge Hydrochar, Master Thesis at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm.

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APA Style

Stig Morling. (2019). Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements. Journal of Water Resources and Ocean Science, 8(2), 21-27. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12

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Stig Morling. Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements. J. Water Resour. Ocean Sci. 2019, 8(2), 21-27. doi: 10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12

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AMA Style

Stig Morling. Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements. J Water Resour Ocean Sci. 2019;8(2):21-27. doi: 10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12

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@article{10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12,
  author = {Stig Morling},
  title = {Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements},
  journal = {Journal of Water Resources and Ocean Science},
  volume = {8},
  number = {2},
  pages = {21-27},
  doi = {10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.wros.20190802.12},
  abstract = {The anaerobic treatment of organic rich pollutants has a very long history within the water industry. Two major applications have been used: Treating sludge streams from midsized and large wastewater treatment plants and for industrial wastewater streams containing high concentrations of organic carbon. This paper presents the status of anaerobic digestion of sludge streams in municipal wastewater. The paper highlights both the potentials and limitations of the technology. Further the alternative or complementing HTC-technology is presented and analyzed. The constraints, limitations and options for the reuse of processed municipal sludge is accordingly pointed out. Our usage of water is found more and more complex, along with the addition of a number of synthetic agents, such as pharmaceuticals and other complex polluting agents we find that the traditionally acknowledged sludge treatment stabilization methods are not sufficient. The paper points out that the anaerobic digestion may be combined with for instance the HTC-process. In a longer perspective the HTC may even replace the current anaerobic digestion. However, the HTC-technology will raise further interesting questions: The important points that need further investigations are inter alia: 1) To further clarify the quality of reject water from the hydrochar, with respect to rest pollutants. 2) To evaluate to what extent the HTC process may become a feasible way to disintegrate pharmaceutical remains found in municipal sludge. 3) How to further enhance the ways to recover raw materials from the hydrochar, such as phosphorus and carbon. Nethertheless, the process may allow for some very promising pathways within the future municipal sludge management.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY - JOUR
T1 - Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements
AU - Stig Morling
Y1 - 2019/06/10
PY - 2019
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12
DO - 10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12
T2 - Journal of Water Resources and Ocean Science
JF - Journal of Water Resources and Ocean Science
JO - Journal of Water Resources and Ocean Science
SP - 21
EP - 27
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2328-7993
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12
AB - The anaerobic treatment of organic rich pollutants has a very long history within the water industry. Two major applications have been used: Treating sludge streams from midsized and large wastewater treatment plants and for industrial wastewater streams containing high concentrations of organic carbon. This paper presents the status of anaerobic digestion of sludge streams in municipal wastewater. The paper highlights both the potentials and limitations of the technology. Further the alternative or complementing HTC-technology is presented and analyzed. The constraints, limitations and options for the reuse of processed municipal sludge is accordingly pointed out. Our usage of water is found more and more complex, along with the addition of a number of synthetic agents, such as pharmaceuticals and other complex polluting agents we find that the traditionally acknowledged sludge treatment stabilization methods are not sufficient. The paper points out that the anaerobic digestion may be combined with for instance the HTC-process. In a longer perspective the HTC may even replace the current anaerobic digestion. However, the HTC-technology will raise further interesting questions: The important points that need further investigations are inter alia: 1) To further clarify the quality of reject water from the hydrochar, with respect to rest pollutants. 2) To evaluate to what extent the HTC process may become a feasible way to disintegrate pharmaceutical remains found in municipal sludge. 3) How to further enhance the ways to recover raw materials from the hydrochar, such as phosphorus and carbon. Nethertheless, the process may allow for some very promising pathways within the future municipal sludge management.
VL - 8
IS - 2
ER -

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Stig Morling

Sweco Environment and affiliated to Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Stig Morling. (2019). Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements. Journal of Water Resources and Ocean Science, 8(2), 21-27. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12

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ACS Style

Stig Morling. Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements. J. Water Resour. Ocean Sci. 2019, 8(2), 21-27. doi: 10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12

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AMA Style

Stig Morling. Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements. J Water Resour Ocean Sci. 2019;8(2):21-27. doi: 10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12

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@article{10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12,
  author = {Stig Morling},
  title = {Aspects on Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sludge, Some Aspects on its Sustainability and Possible Enhancements},
  journal = {Journal of Water Resources and Ocean Science},
  volume = {8},
  number = {2},
  pages = {21-27},
  doi = {10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wros.20190802.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.wros.20190802.12},
  abstract = {The anaerobic treatment of organic rich pollutants has a very long history within the water industry. Two major applications have been used: Treating sludge streams from midsized and large wastewater treatment plants and for industrial wastewater streams containing high concentrations of organic carbon. This paper presents the status of anaerobic digestion of sludge streams in municipal wastewater. The paper highlights both the potentials and limitations of the technology. Further the alternative or complementing HTC-technology is presented and analyzed. The constraints, limitations and options for the reuse of processed municipal sludge is accordingly pointed out. Our usage of water is found more and more complex, along with the addition of a number of synthetic agents, such as pharmaceuticals and other complex polluting agents we find that the traditionally acknowledged sludge treatment stabilization methods are not sufficient. The paper points out that the anaerobic digestion may be combined with for instance the HTC-process. In a longer perspective the HTC may even replace the current anaerobic digestion. However, the HTC-technology will raise further interesting questions: The important points that need further investigations are inter alia: 1) To further clarify the quality of reject water from the hydrochar, with respect to rest pollutants. 2) To evaluate to what extent the HTC process may become a feasible way to disintegrate pharmaceutical remains found in municipal sludge. 3) How to further enhance the ways to recover raw materials from the hydrochar, such as phosphorus and carbon. Nethertheless, the process may allow for some very promising pathways within the future municipal sludge management.},
 year = {2019}
}

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