TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainable disposal of excess sludge
T2 - Incineration without anaerobic digestion
AU - Hao, Xiaodi
AU - Chen, Qi
AU - van Loosdrecht, Mark C.M.
AU - Li, Ji
AU - Jiang, Han
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Handling excess sludge produced by wastewater treatment is a common problem worldwide. Due to limited space available in landfills, as well as difficulties involved in using excess sludge in agriculture, there is a need for alternative disposal methods. Although anaerobic digestion (AD) is widely used in processing sludge, only partial energy recovery from methane and sludge volume reduction can be achieved, resulting in a substantial amount of sludge remaining, which needs to be disposed of. Direct incineration after sludge drying is one possible option, a practice that is already in place in some cities in China. A comparison between direct incineration and conventional AD (with or without pretreatment by thermal hydrolysis) has to be made with respect to the energy balance and investment & operational (I & O) costs. This comparison reveals direct incineration to have the lowest energy deficit and I & O costs. Therefore, it is expected that direct incineration without AD will become the preferred sustainable approach to handling sludge.
AB - Handling excess sludge produced by wastewater treatment is a common problem worldwide. Due to limited space available in landfills, as well as difficulties involved in using excess sludge in agriculture, there is a need for alternative disposal methods. Although anaerobic digestion (AD) is widely used in processing sludge, only partial energy recovery from methane and sludge volume reduction can be achieved, resulting in a substantial amount of sludge remaining, which needs to be disposed of. Direct incineration after sludge drying is one possible option, a practice that is already in place in some cities in China. A comparison between direct incineration and conventional AD (with or without pretreatment by thermal hydrolysis) has to be made with respect to the energy balance and investment & operational (I & O) costs. This comparison reveals direct incineration to have the lowest energy deficit and I & O costs. Therefore, it is expected that direct incineration without AD will become the preferred sustainable approach to handling sludge.
KW - Anaerobic digestion
KW - Direct incineration
KW - Energy deficit
KW - Investment & operational costs
KW - Sludge disposal
KW - Sludge drying
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075015769&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.watres.2019.115298
DO - 10.1016/j.watres.2019.115298
M3 - Review article
C2 - 31751893
SN - 0043-1354
VL - 170
JO - Water Research
JF - Water Research
M1 - 115298
ER -