There are many chemical constituents that enter the municipal waste stream that are of potential concern for human health. These substances include organic chemicals, inorganic trace elements (such as cadmium and lead), and nitrogen. Conventional agricultural practices, such as the use of commercial fertilizers, also have the potential to introduce additional chemical constituents to soil. Howe...

The evolution of the pyrolysis of sewage sludge in a fixed and a fluidized bed was analyzed using a novel measuring technique. This original measuring technique consists of installing the whole reactor over a precision scale, capable of measuring the mass of the complete reactor with enough precision to detect the mass released by the sewage sludge sample during its pyrolysis. The inert conditi...

The aim of this research line is to study and optimize the production of biofuels through the anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic waste (biohydrogen and biomethane) and the exploitation of lipid-rich biomasses and waste matrices (biodiesel). The research on anaerobic digestion has the following goals: a) the study of the biomethanization of unconventional waste matrices, such as algae, municipa...

The fate of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in sewage sludge after agricultural application was analysed. This study was based on the analysis of sewage sludge and sludge amended soil samples collected during 2005. PBDE concentrations in sewage sludge ranged from 197 to 1185ng/g dry weight (dw), being deca-BDE-209 the predominant congener. PBDE levels in soils ranged between 21 and 690ng...

A long-term experiment was carried out under field conditions in Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil, with the objective of evaluating the concentration of Ba in soil and in maize plants grown in a soil treated with sewage sludge for nine consecutive years. During 2005/2006, maize was used as test plants and the experimental design was in randomized complete blocks with four treatments and five replicates....

In Quebec, municipal sewage sludge application on agricultural lands is relatively recent and there are many concerns related to potential contamination and loss of plant productivity. This study aimed at monitoring the impacts of repeated, long-term application of sewage sludge on agricultural lands under operating field conditions. Eight paired study sites (treated and control) in three regio...

A study was completed to investigate temporal trends of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs; aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, heptachlor, hexachlorbenzene, and DDT) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sewage sludge. Between 2004 and 2006 the concentration of OCPs and PCBs in Australian sewage sludge (n=829) was consistently <1000mugkg(-1) dry solids DS. Dieldrin, chlordane and DDE were detected in ...

Introduction The terms sewage, sludge, municipal wastewater, and others related to the collection and disposal of human and industrial wastes almost automatically “trigger” a negative reaction by the general public, due primarily to the odors that are coincidental to the transport and treatment of wastewater. I t is probably true that every sewage collection system and treatment plant has encou...

The wastewater treatment produces a large amount of sludge. The different uses of eliminations sludge such as landfills or incineration have consequences negative for the environment, the agricultural use has increased worldwide, especially in crops and few or no studies have been conducted with forest plantations in Algeria. The objective of this study is to assess fertilizing characteristics ...

The bacterial community structures in two sewage treatment plants with different processes and performance were investigated by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of nested polymerase chain reaction (nested PCR) amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments with group-specific primers. Samples of raw sewage and treated effluents were amplified using the whole-cell PCR method, and the activated ...