Natural and synthetic steroidal estrogens (estrone, 17beta-estradiol and 17alpha-ethinylestradiol) are endocrine disrupters, that are discharged consistently from the sewage treatment works into surface waters, thereby causing endocrine disrupting effects to aquatic organisms at trace concentrations (nanogram per litre). Several years of research have been focused on their fate, behaviour and r...

The fate and behavior of estrogenic substances in various biological wastewater treatment processes and several advanced sewage treatment processes were examined. The removal of 17beta-estradiol (E2), estrone (E1) and estriol (E3) was investigated by using a pilot-scale activated sludge plant supplied with domestic sewage. Several sewage treatment plants adopting the activated sludge process we...

The aim of the present work is to study the antibiotic resistance, plasmid and RAPD profiles of the multidrug resistant (MDR) Coliform bacteria isolated from raw and treated sewage of Ghaziabad city, India. The MDR bacterial population in the raw and treated sewage constituted 7.5% and 19.1% of the total Coliform bacteria respectively. Five MDR Coliform bacteria (2 from raw and 3 from treated s...

Sewage sludge at the rate of 0, 40, 80, 120 and 240 t/ha showed that the number of filled grains per panicle, dry weight of grains and weight of 1000 grains of rice (Oryza sativa L.) were the significantly highest where 240 tons of sewage sludge per hectare was added. The contents of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb in rice grains increased significantly with increasing rate of sewage sludge ...

A novel microwave treatment of sewage sludge was developed as part of the ongoing studies for enhancing the recovery of phosphorus from municipal wastes. The microwave treatment provided a rapid and efficient process to release phosphate from sewage sludge. By using the microwave treatment for only 5 min, up to 76% of the total phosphate in the sludge could be released into the solution. No che...

This work reports some reflections about the European and Italian regulation on sewage sludge. In Europe, the progressive augment of the production of sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants has recently led to a growing attention about management of this type of solid matrix. European Directives and Italian guidelines stimulated reuse of sewage sludge on agricultural soils or in comp...

Coliphage content of sewage collected from 11 different localities in Hong Kong was determined. The number of plaque-forming units (PFU) ranged from 0.036 x 10(3) to 15.9 x 10(3) per ml. In general, urban sewage tended to be richer than rural sewage both in PFU count as well as plaque morphological variation. Seventy-seven isolates were subjected to a host range study. Fifty per cent of these w...

The work presented here demonstrates the utility of a two-step algorithm for environmental poliovirus surveillance based on: preselection of sewage samples tested for the presence of enteroviral genetic material-RT-PCR assay and detection of infectious viruses by cell culture technique (L20B for polioviruses and RD for polio and other non-polio enteroviruses). RD and L20B cell lines were tested...

The composting of thermal-hydrolyzed kitchen biogas residue, either with or without sewage sludge, was compared in this study. The addition of sewage sludge increased and prolonged the temperature to a sufficient level that met the requirements for aerobic composting. Moreover, after mixing the compost materials, oxygen, ammonia, and carbon dioxide levels reverted to those typical of aerobic co...

The sewage treatment plant was monitored to determine the efficiency of technologies employed to reduce microbiological threats. Every four weeks, for a year, sewage was sampled to investigate the effects of post-mechanical and post-biological treatment. Changes in Escherichia coli, D-group streptococci and Salmonella spp. number were analyzed. The reduction of the bacteria in sewage treated me...