background: the biological solids produced during wastewater treatment processes are called sludge. as sludge contains various sickening microorganisms such as pathogens, organic and inorganic substances and has adverse effects on human and environment, therefore it should be treated and processed entirely prior to disposal and then disposed in line to the environmental regulations. thermal tre...

Sewage sludge is an unavoidable secondary pollution produced in the process of sewage treatment. At present traditional methods of treating sludge (e.g. landfill, incineration or land application) have some disadvantages and shortages. Direct thermochemical liquefaction of sludge is a new treatment method, which has the advantage of both treatment and energy recovery. Research progress and appl...

Antibiotics are often used to prevent sickness and improve production in animal agriculture, and the residues in animal bodies may enter tannery wastewater during leather production. This study aimed to use Illumina high-throughput sequencing to investigate the occurrence, diversity and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in aerobic and anaerobic s...

This study compared membrane fouling in a sponge-submerged membrane bioreactor (SSMBR) and a conventional membrane bioreactor (CMBR) based on sludge properties when treating synthetic domestic wastewater. In the CMBR, soluble microbial products (SMP) in activated sludge were a major contributor for initial membrane fouling and presented higher concentration in membrane cake layer. Afterwards, m...

The objective of this study was to investigate the benefits of co-digestion of a sludge-mix of primary sludge (PS)/thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) with concentrated fat-oil-grease (FOG) over a wide range of FOG/sludge-mix volumetric feed ratios. The biodegradability (i.e., COD to methane conversion) of PS, TWAS, sludge-mix, and FOG was 43.0, 38.6, 41.8, and 97.7%, respectively, with a p...

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...

Although the activated sludge process for stabilizing liquid organic wastes is primarily a biological process, very little research has been conducted on the pure biological phases of this process. Until the work of Butterfield (1935), activated sludge was considered by some as a physio-chemical process and by others as a bio-chemical process. Butterfield isolated a bacterium, Zoogloea ramigera...

Sewage sludge is used as a fertilizer in agriculture to rehabilitate deteriorated soils and replace artificial fertilizers. Sludge can be utilized improve soil characteristics, promote microbial life, increase plant production where it includes the primary nutrients organic matter. The current study investigated impact of treatment sewage on physico-chemical characteristics soil, also growth to...