Sewage Sludge-To-Energy Management In Eastern Europe: A Polish Perspective

Abstract

Abstract:The Sewage Sludge Directive 86/278/EEC was adopted about 30 years ago with a view to encourage sewage sludge reuse in agriculture and to regulate its use. Meanwhile, some EU Member States have adopted stricter standards and management practices than those specified in the Directive. In particular, the majority of Member States has introduced more stringent standards for sludge quality, including stricter limits for most potentially toxic elements, organic contaminants and other elements. In general, untreated sludge is no longer applied and in several Member States it is prohibited. In some cases, stringent standards have resulted in an effective ban on use of sludge in agriculture. Moreover, the implementation of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive 91/271/EC should increase EU production of sewage sludge, thus enhancing problems related to sustainable sewage sludge management. Additionally, European legislation prohibits the landfill and water deposits of sewage sludge. The latest trends in the field of sludge management, ie combustion, pyrolysis, gasification and co-combustion, have generated significant scientific interest. This trend is specially strong visible in "new" EU Members countries which have to introduce strong EU Directive in their low system. Here the review the state of knowledge and technology in thermal methods for the utilization of municipal sewage sludge to obtain useful forms of energy such as pyrolysis, gasification, combustion, and co-combustion taking into consideration Poland situation is presented.

Major Advances and Challenges in Heterogeneous Catalysis for Environmental Applications: A Review

“…Production of hydrogen from polyethylene glycol contaminated wastewaters by supercritical water gasification with Ni/ZrO 2 heterogeneous catalysis was the subject of a paper by Yan et al [194]. Gasification of sewage sludge and the possibility to use the created gas as a fuel was also evaluated [195][196][197].…”

Division of methods for counting helminths’ eggs and the problem of efficiency of these methods

“…When the results of control are positive, examined objectives may be applied for agricultural or natural use [9,10], otherwise they can be utilized in other branches of the economy [11,12]. Unfortunately, in the developing countries -especially those struggling with a deficit of fresh water -wastewater and sludge are frequently used without any supervision, even for watering or fertilization of fruit and vegetable crops which are consumed raw [13][14][15][16].…”

Investigation of sewage sludge gasification with use of flue gas as a gasifying agent

“…Sewage sludge is a type of biomass fuel with a calorific value ranging up to value of a coal. In recent decades ono-and co-combustion of sewage sludge are probably the most developed thermal utilization methods, however technologies of gasification and pyrolysis are developing constantly [3,4].…”