Utilization of sewage sludge in EU application of old and new methods—A review
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review past and future trends in sludge handling, focusing mainly at thermal processes (e.g. pyrolysis, wet oxidation, gasification) and the utilization of sewage sludge in cement manufacture as a co-fuel.
Abstract: The European Union has made progress in dealing with municipal wastewater in individual countries and as a corporate entity. However, it intends to make still further and substantial progress over the next 15 years. Currently, the most widely available options in the EU are the agriculture utilization, the waste disposal sites, the land reclamation and restoration, the incineration and other novel uses. The selection of an option on a local basis reflects local or national, cultural, historical, geographical, legal, political and economic circumstances. The degree of flexibility varies from country to country. In any case sludge treatment and disposal should always be considered as an integral part of treatment of wastewater. There is a wide range of other uses for sludge, which exploit its energy or chemical content, namely the thermal processes. The present paper sought to review past and future trends in sludge handling, focusing mainly at thermal processes (e.g. pyrolysis, wet oxidation, gasification) and the utilization of sewage sludge in cement manufacture as a co-fuel.
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01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: The wet pyrolysis process, also known as hydrothermal carbonization, opens up the field of potential feedstocks for char production to a range of nontraditional renewable and plentiful wet agricultural residues and municipal wastes as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The carbonization of biomass residuals to char has strong potential to become an environmentally sound conversion process for the production of a wide variety of products. In addition to its traditional use for the production of charcoal and other energy vectors, pyrolysis can produce products for environmental, catalytic, electronic and agricultural applications. As an alternative to dry pyrolysis, the wet pyrolysis process, also known as hydrothermal carbonization, opens up the field of potential feedstocks for char production to a range of nontraditional renewable and plentiful wet agricultural residues and municipal wastes. Its chemistry offers huge potential to influence product characteristics on demand, and produce designer carbon materials. Future uses of these hydrochars may range from innovative materials to soil amelioration, nutrient conservation via intelligent waste stream management and the increase of carbon stock in degraded soils.
1,360 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, three strategies of CO2 reduction including energy saving, carbon separation and storage as well as utilizing alternative materials in detail have been reviewed and the barriers against worldwide deployment of such strategies are identified and comprehensively described.
903 citations
TL;DR: The main objective of the current study was to outline the current situation and discuss future perspectives for sludge treatment and disposal in EU countries, where sludge reuse in land and sludge incineration seem to be the main practices further adopted in EU-27 (all Member States up to 2020.
853 citations
TL;DR: The high microplastic enrichment in marine sediments compared to most literature data for seawater at the surface supports the hypothesis of a seabed sink for these materials.
710 citations
TL;DR: An updated review on two subjects: the available alternatives to produce biochar from a biomass feedstock and the effect of biochar addition to agricultural soils on soil properties and fertility is provided.
Abstract: According to the International Biochar Initiative (IBI), biochar is a charcoal which can be applied to soil for both agricultural and environmental gains. Biochar technology seems to have a very promising future. Nevertheless, the further development of this technology requires continuing research. The present paper provides an updated review on two subjects: the available alternatives to produce biochar from a biomass feedstock and the effect of biochar addition to agricultural soils on soil properties and fertility. A high number of previous studies have highlighted the benefit of using biochar in terms of mitigating global warning (through carbon sequestration) and as a strategy to manage soil processes and functions. Nevertheless, the relationship between biochar properties (mainly physical properties and chemical functionalities on surface) and its applicability as a soil amendment is still unclear and does not allow the establishment of the appropriate process conditions to produce a biochar with de...
631 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, it is suggested that the downdraft gasifier should be operated at 3.69-3.43% of the feed rate, at 2.28-2.84% of specific gasification rate and around 93.64-94.15%±1.92% of turndown ratio in order to avoid clinker formation at the throat of the gasifier because of high ash content of sludge.
217 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an original modeling of the biomass gasification process and more particularly the wood gasification is presented based on the minimisation of the Gibbs free energy is performed in the ASPEN PLUS process simulator, where processes occurring in the gasification are uncoupled in pyrolysis, combustion, Boudouard reaction, and gasification.
208 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a new innovative hydrogen-production method, HyPr-RING (hydrogen production by reactionintegrated novel gasification), using hydrocarbon and water has been proposed.
196 citations
"Utilization of sewage sludge in EU ..." refers background in this paper
...The cement industry is estimated to contribute 5% of global manmade CO2 emissions [61]....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented the results of the 2-yr EU-funded Combined Combustion of Biomass/Sewage Sludge and Coals of High and Low Rank in Different Systems of Semi-industrial and Industrial Scale.
190 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a commercial modeling tool (ASPEN PLUS®) is used to model the four-stage pre-heater kiln system of a full-scale cement plant (clinker production ∼2900 tons/day), using petcoke as fuel.
188 citations
"Utilization of sewage sludge in EU ..." refers background in this paper
...[53] at their work, suggest that as a rule of thumb, the maximal sewage sludge feed rate should not be more than 5% of the clinker production capacity of the cement plant....
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...Utilization of sewage sludge in the cement kiln for mortar production The resulting sewage sludge ash (SSA) from incineration can be placed in controlled landfills or used in construction to improve certain properties of building materials [53]....
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...Co-combustion of sewage sludge in cement manufacturing The traditional fuels used in the cement-manufacturing process are gas, oil or coal whilst the alternative ones can be materials like waste oils, plastics, auto residues, waste tires and sewage sludge [53]....
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...The raw materials for cement production are [53]: Limestone or other source of CaCO3 (approximately 80–85% of input); Clay (approximately 15–29% of input); several other materials (a few of % input) to provide the necessary Si, Fe and Al....
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...4% per year [53,57]....
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