Conversion of Sewage Sludge and Other Biodegradable Waste into High-Value Soil Amendment within a Circular Bioeconomy Perspective

Ewa Neczaj, Anna Grosser, Anna Grobelak, Piotr Celary and Bal Ram Singh
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Ewa Neczaj: Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland
Anna Grosser: Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland
Anna Grobelak: Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland
Piotr Celary: Central Laboratory for Measurements and Research, 44-335 Jastrzebie-Zdroj, Poland
Bal Ram Singh: Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life, 1433 Ås, Norway

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: Resource recovery from biodegradable waste is essential in order to reach the goals of zero circular economy waste generation and zero greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector. Waste whose management is a real challenge is sewage sludge, mainly because of high concentrations of heavy metals. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of material stabilization during aerobic stabilization of two feedstocks with sewage sludge obtained from different sources, namely, digestate from a municipal wastewater treatment plant and digestate from a co-digestion process. Moreover, the goal of the experiment was to assess the quality of compost in terms of remediation potential. The composting process was carried out for four different mixtures consisting of the mentioned digestates, municipal solid waste, and grass. A better composting efficiency with digestate from the co-digestion process was observed. In that case, a higher temperature in the thermophilic phase (>55 °C) and a higher organic matter loss ratio (60%) were obtained as compared to the process with digestate from wastewater treatment plant. Taking into account the fertilizing properties and the concentration of heavy metals, all obtained composts met the requirements set out in the Polish Regulation for organic fertilizers. Only the content of Helminth eggs in the composts produced with the digestate from the wastewater treatment plant was above the acceptable level. The research also proved that the produced composts can be used in the phytoremediation process of the degraded area. It was found that all composts caused a significant increase in fescue biomass. The highest yield was achieved for compost produced from a mixture with the addition of 30% sewage sludge from the co-digestion process.

Keywords: circular economy; bioeconomy; sewage sludge; organic waste; co-composting; bioremediation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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