Chemical and microbiological stability of waste sludge from paper industry intended for brick production

Abstract

Due to its chemical composition, waste sludge generated in the paper industry may be used as a raw material for brick production. Brick manufacture is limited to the warmer months of the year whereas sludge is produced continuously by different effluent treatment devices. Therefore, it has to be stored until further processing. For this reason, it is essential that it is not subject to significant chemical and microbiological decomposition during storage. In the experiment, sludge from a tissue paper mill was tested for its stability. It was stored for several weeks during winter and summer periods in a pile, 2 m in height, in an open but covered store. Different leachable organic and inorganic compounds indicating possible ongoing deterioration processes, as well as pH value, redox potential, temperature, humidity and dry matter content were evaluated weekly in water extracts of homogenized sludge samples. According to the test results, the material may be considered to be chemically and microbiologically stable as there was practically no emission of odorous and toxic compounds such as H2S, NH3 and butyric acid despite prolonged storage times and elevated environmental temperatures. All the microbial species identified in the sludge during storage belong to the typical microflora of the environment.

Chemical and leaching properties of paper mill sludge

“…In landfills, organic material can be degraded aerobically with oxygen, or anaerobically without oxygen. It is essential that the materials used in landfill barrier layers are not subjected to significant decomposition (Ratnieks and Gaylarde, 1997;Cernec et al, 2005). Although the sludge is rich in cellulose fibres, the biodegradation tests carried out by the manometric respirometric OxiTop 1 system indicated only a slight degree of biodegradation (Figure 2).…”

“…Inorganic components are usually predominant in sludge from printing paper and board production, whereas in the packaging paper industry sludge of a more organic character is typical (Cernec et al, 2005). Paper mill sludge is usually disposed of in landfills.…”

Sintering behaviour of ceramic bodies from contaminated marine sediments

“…Consequently, the incorporation of industrial wastes or subproducts in bricks and tiles is becoming a frequent practice in the ceramic factories. In this sense, it has been conducted several studies in last years concerning the production of bricks with the incorporation of both organic [15][16][17] and inorganic wastes, such as, sewage sludge ash [18][19][20], waterworks sludge [21], natural stone wastes [22][23][24][25][26], fly and bottom ashes [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], metallurgical wastes [35][36][37][38] and boron waste [39,40].…”

Use of Sewage Sludge as Raw Material in the Manufacture of Roofs

“…In this context, in Brazil, researches have been developed to study the sewage sludge as a raw material for the civil construction industry [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].Internationally, early studies showing feasibility of recycling waste in the construction industry began in the 1980s, providing important information for future studies [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”