Anaerobic digestion (AD) has long been used to treat different types of organic wastes especially in the developed world. However, organic wastes are still more often considered as a waste instead of a resource in the developing world, which contributes to environmental pollution arising from their disposal. This study has been conducted at Bugolobi Sewage Treatment Plant (BSTP), where two orga...

This paper describes a systematic methodology (Conceptual Framework) to derive quality standards for organic (anthropogenic) contaminants in sewage sludge added to agricultural land, in the context of revision of EU Sludge Directive 86/278/EEC and the broader Soil Thematic Strategy. The overall objective is to ensure, based on a risk assessment approach, a sustainable use of sludge over a long ...

Sludge of two different ages (3 years old; Type 1 sludge, and 3 months old; Type 2 sludge) were applied to the following soil types: two luvisols, an arenosol and a vertisol at different rates to determine whether sludge application had any effect on the partitioning and consequently, bioavailability andmobility of Cu, Pb and Zn. A fivestage sequential extraction procedurewas used to determine ...

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...

Anaerobic digestion is widely applied for the recovery of energy from waste activated sludge. Pre-treatment methods are of high interest to increase the biodegradability of the sludge and to enhance the digestion efficiency. This paper studies the application of a microwave pre-treatment. An experimental set-up of two pilot scale semi-continuous digesters was used. During a long term experiment...

Three microscopic in situ techniques were used simultaneously to investigate viability and activity on a single-cell level in activated sludge. The redox dye 5-cyano-2,3-tolyl-tetrazolium chloride (CTC) was compared with microautoradiography (MAR) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to indicate activity of cells in Thiothrix filaments and in single floc-forming bacteria. The signals f...

Sewage sludge is composed of organic and inorganic materials. The organic portion of the sludge is predominantly composed of C, H, ti, and S. On a dry-basis, the heating value of sludge is greater than that of oil shale or tar sand. The volatile matter content of dry sludge can be higher than that of the high volatile bituminous coal. Available correlations in the literature, developed for coal...

This study compared the PHAs production behavior of sludges from the anaerobic and oxic phases of an enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) system. This was accomplished by using the kinetics and stoichiometric coefficients obtained from aerobic batch tests to evaluate the performance of these two sludges. Experimental results indicated that the metabolic behavior of the sludges for PHAs...

Organic chemicals discharged in urban wastewater from industrial and domestic sources, or those entering through atmospheric deposition onto paved areas via surface run-off, are predominantly lipophilic in nature and therefore become concentrated in sewage sludge, with potential implications for the agricultural use of sludge as a soil improver. Biodegradation occurs to varying degrees during w...