IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i6p1753-d216547.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digestion Procedure and Determination of Heavy Metals in Sewage Sludge—An Analytical Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Turek

    (Institute of General and Ecological Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, 116 Żeromskiego Str., 90-924 Lodz, Poland)

  • Kinga Wieczorek

    (Institute of General and Ecological Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, 116 Żeromskiego Str., 90-924 Lodz, Poland)

  • Wojciech M. Wolf

    (Institute of General and Ecological Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, 116 Żeromskiego Str., 90-924 Lodz, Poland)

Abstract

Huge amounts of sewage sludge produced globally is a substantial environmental threat and require rational handling. Application in agriculture is an economical and relatively simple method of sludge management, however, it is associated with restrictions regarding metals content. According to EU regulations, the total amounts of Cd, Cu, Cr, Pb, Ni, and Zn have to be analyzed by the AAS technique requiring effective destruction of the organic matrix. Currently used methods of sewage sludge digestion may be biased when applied without optimization. The aim of the presented work was to evaluate the efficiency of the organic substances destruction in either raw or stabilized sludge. Three mineralization procedures were evaluated, namely: (A)—drying and microwave digestion; (B)—ignition and microwave digestion; (C)—drying and conventional digestion. For matrix destruction, a mixture of concentrated HNO 3 and HCl (3:1 v/v ) was used. Metals were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). No limits of metal concentration were overdrawn. Generally, the method (B) was the most effective. Results obtained for Cu, Cd, and Zn after digestion by method (A) and (B) were comparable. Methods (B) and (C) yield complete decomposition of the matrix. As result, the precision of measurement substantially increases.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Turek & Kinga Wieczorek & Wojciech M. Wolf, 2019. "Digestion Procedure and Determination of Heavy Metals in Sewage Sludge—An Analytical Problem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-10, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1753-:d:216547
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1753/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1753/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimo Raboni & Vincenzo Torretta & Giordano Urbini, 2013. "Influence of Strong Diurnal Variations in Sewage Quality on the Performance of Biological Denitrification in Small Community Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(9), pages 1-11, August.
    2. Fytili, D. & Zabaniotou, A., 2008. "Utilization of sewage sludge in EU application of old and new methods--A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 116-140, January.
    3. Xuan Zhang & Xian-qing Wang & Dong-fang Wang, 2017. "Immobilization of Heavy Metals in Sewage Sludge during Land Application Process in China: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-19, November.
    4. Alexey Paukov & Romen Magaril & Elena Magaril, 2019. "An Investigation of the Feasibility of the Organic Municipal Solid Waste Processing by Coking," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-13, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Malwina Tytła, 2020. "Identification of the Chemical Forms of Heavy Metals in Municipal Sewage Sludge as a Critical Element of Ecological Risk Assessment in Terms of Its Agricultural or Natural Use," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Esmeralda Chiorescu & Feodor Filipov, 2021. "Examining the Influence of Sludge from Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants Processed by Euphore Installations on the Quantity and Quality of Rapeseed and Soybean Production," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Malwina Tytła, 2019. "Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution and Potential Ecological Risk in Sewage Sludge from Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant Located in the Most Industrialized Region in Poland—Case Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-16, July.
    4. Dorota Olejnik, 2024. "Evaluation of the Heavy Metals Content in Sewage Sludge from Selected Rural and Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants in Poland in Terms of Its Suitability for Agricultural Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-14, June.
    5. Lidia Mielcarz-Skalska & Beata Smolińska & Katarzyna Włodarczyk, 2021. "Nanoparticles as Potential Improvement for Conventional Fertilisation in the Cultivation of Raphanus sativus var. sativus," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-16, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oumaima Mabrouk & Helmi Hamdi & Sami Sayadi & Mohammad A. Al-Ghouti & Mohammed H. Abu-Dieyeh & Nabil Zouari, 2023. "Reuse of Sludge as Organic Soil Amendment: Insights into the Current Situation and Potential Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-25, April.
    2. Shahbeig, Hossein & Nosrati, Mohsen, 2020. "Pyrolysis of municipal sewage sludge for bioenergy production: Thermo-kinetic studies, evolved gas analysis, and techno-socio-economic assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. Sanchez, M.E. & Otero, M. & Gómez, X. & Morán, A., 2009. "Thermogravimetric kinetic analysis of the combustion of biowastes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1622-1627.
    4. Seongmin Kang & Changsang Cho & Ki-Hyun Kim & Eui-chan Jeon, 2018. "Fossil Carbon Fraction and Measuring Cycle for Sewage Sludge Waste Incineration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-8, August.
    5. Valdas Rudelis & Tadas Dambrauskas & Agne Grineviciene & Kestutis Baltakys, 2019. "The Prospective Approach for the Reduction of Fluoride Ions Mobility in Industrial Waste by Creating Products of Commercial Value," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, January.
    6. Malwina Tytła, 2020. "Identification of the Chemical Forms of Heavy Metals in Municipal Sewage Sludge as a Critical Element of Ecological Risk Assessment in Terms of Its Agricultural or Natural Use," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Kumar, Aman & Singh, Ekta & Mishra, Rahul & Lo, Shang Lien & Kumar, Sunil, 2023. "Global trends in municipal solid waste treatment technologies through the lens of sustainable energy development opportunity," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    8. Jiawen Zhang & Zhiyi Liang & Toru Matsumoto & Tiejia Zhang, 2022. "Environmental and Economic Implication of Implementation Scale of Sewage Sludge Recycling Systems Considering Carbon Trading Price," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-16, July.
    9. Bidart, Christian & Fröhling, Magnus & Schultmann, Frank, 2014. "Electricity and substitute natural gas generation from the conversion of wastewater treatment plant sludge," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 404-413.
    10. Wang, Liping & Chang, Yuzhi & Li, Aimin, 2019. "Hydrothermal carbonization for energy-efficient processing of sewage sludge: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 423-440.
    11. Faubert, Patrick & Barnabé, Simon & Bouchard, Sylvie & Côté, Richard & Villeneuve, Claude, 2016. "Pulp and paper mill sludge management practices: What are the challenges to assess the impacts on greenhouse gas emissions?," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 107-133.
    12. Junshen Qu & Daiying Wang & Zeyu Deng & Hejie Yu & Jianjun Dai & Xiaotao Bi, 2023. "Biochar Prepared by Microwave-Assisted Co-Pyrolysis of Sewage Sludge and Cotton Stalk: A Potential Soil Conditioner," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, April.
    13. Magdziarz, Aneta & Wilk, Małgorzata & Gajek, Marcin & Nowak-Woźny, Dorota & Kopia, Agnieszka & Kalemba-Rec, Izabela & Koziński, Janusz A., 2016. "Properties of ash generated during sewage sludge combustion: A multifaceted analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 85-94.
    14. Massimo Raboni & Renato Gavasci & Giordano Urbini, 2014. "UASB followed by Sub-Surface Horizontal Flow Phytodepuration for the Treatment of the Sewage Generated by a Small Rural Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-15, October.
    15. Praspaliauskas, M. & Pedišius, N., 2017. "A review of sludge characteristics in Lithuania's wastewater treatment plants and perspectives of its usage in thermal processes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 899-907.
    16. Beegle, Jeffrey R. & Borole, Abhijeet P., 2018. "Energy production from waste: Evaluation of anaerobic digestion and bioelectrochemical systems based on energy efficiency and economic factors," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 343-351.
    17. Vladimír Frišták & Diana Bošanská & Vladimír Turčan & Martin Pipíška & Christoph Pfeifer & Gerhard Soja, 2022. "Relevance of Pyrolysis Products Derived from Sewage Sludge for Soil Applications," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Vito Horvatić & Helena Bakić Begić & Davor Romić & Marko Černe & Smiljana Goreta Ban & Monika Zovko & Marija Romić, 2021. "Evaluation of Land Potential for Use of Biosolids in the Coastal Mediterranean Karst Region," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-22, October.
    19. Zhai, Yunbo & Peng, Chuan & Xu, Bibo & Wang, Tengfei & Li, Caiting & Zeng, Guangming & Zhu, Yun, 2017. "Hydrothermal carbonisation of sewage sludge for char production with different waste biomass: Effects of reaction temperature and energy recycling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 167-174.
    20. Wu, Junnan & Liao, Yanfen & Lin, Yan & Tian, Yunlong & Ma, Xiaoqian, 2019. "Study on thermal decomposition kinetics model of sewage sludge and wheat based on multi distributed activation energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 795-803.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1753-:d:216547. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.