Biosolids and Sludge Management

Abstract

This review section covers journal articles and conference papers related to biosolids and sludge management that were published in 2002. The literature review has been divided into the following sections:• Regulations and biosolids management planning,• Biosolids characteristics and measurement,• Odor issues,• Sludge treatment technologies, and • Disposal and reuse. The biosolids characteristics and measurement section includes stability, metals, nutrients, synthetic organics, and pathogens. An entire section was devoted to odor issues since a host of relevant papers were identified from the Water Environment Federation's Odors and Toxic Air Emissions 2002 Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The sludge treatment technologies include: pretreatment, anaerobic digestion, aerobic digestion, dewatering, drying, composting, alkaline stabilization, and innovative treatments. A vast majority of the treatment papers relate to anaerobic digestion of sludge. The disposal and reuse section considers land filling and land application as disposal options. Much of the literature dealt with the agricultural land application of biosolids/sludge, so that this subsection is also fairly lengthy. Within land Literature Review 2003

Biosolids are wicked to manage: Land application regulations in Sweden and B.C. Canada

“…• the collective urban population, as they are rid of their waste in a cost-efficient manner, • polluters as they do not carry the cost of handling their discharge once it has entered the waste stream, • sewage treatment plants, who receive reduced storage and disposal costs, and • farmers, because of reduced fertilizer costs (Laha and Parker, 2003;Leschber, 2002;Mason et al, 2014;Ochsenhirt, 2012).…”

“…There are literally thousands of studies that deal with technical, health and environmental issues related to biosolids management (Brisolara and Sandberg, 2014;Clarke and Cummins, 2014;Environment Canada et al, 2012), and hundreds that deal with the problem from economic or management perspectives (e.g. Axelrad et al, 2012;Ikehata et al, 2010;Laha and Parker, 2003), and a handful studies deal with the perception of risks (e.g. Beecher et al, 2005;Robinson and Robinson, 2006;Parkin et al, 2004).…”