Extraction of heavy metals and phosphorus from sewage sludge ashes
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Institut of Environmental Engineering Polish Academy of Sciences Zabrze Poland
3
The Łukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of Ceramics and Building Materials, Kraków, Poland
J. Ecol. Eng. 2025; 26(7)
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ABSTRACT
Phosphorus is a crucial element for food and fodder production, and generally for ecosystems stability. Phosphate fossil resources are common source of it but industry waste can be also a valuable alterative in agriculture applications. Sewage sludge which comes from municipal wastewater treatment plants is an important source of phosphorus, which is listed as a critical element for EU countries. So it is very important to implement into fertilizer industry a new effective methods of phosphorus recovery from these type of waste. There are available in large quantities in wastewater treatment plants, with biological stage based on activated sludge. However, municipal sewage sludge (MSS) contain significant amounts of various pollution types, including parasites, eggs, antibiotics, microplastic and heavy metals. Thermal conversion removes all organic matter, toxic organic compounds and all parasites, but increases concentrations of heavy metals. Different extraction methods of ash from thermal treatment of municipal sewage sludge (SSA) enables the use of an effective, cheap, and uncomplicated technology of phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge ash through an easy soluble form of heavy metal removal.
The aim of this work was to find a method for easy soluble forms of heavy metals removal to create an ash phosphorus fertilizer.
It is therefore necessary to identify the amount of heavy metals and bioavailable phosphorus to determine the possibility of using SSA as agriculture fertilizer. Experimental extraction with sulfur (SA) and acetic acid (AA) in different dilutions (0.05, 0.005, 0.0005 mol/dm3 of H2SO4 and 0.001, 0.01, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.1 mol/dm3 of CH3COOH) was introduced for bioavailable phosphorus and easy soluble forms of heavy metal removal to achieve safe levels of metals concentrations that fulfill requirements for mineral fertilizers. Obtained results show strong potential for phosphorus elution; however, a significant difference was observed in molybdenum removal compared to other heavy metals in acidic solutions.