Safer circulation of nutrient-rich sewage sludge

In order to put policies of Circular Economy in practice, we need to demonstrate that circular material flows are actually possible from technical, logistic, economic, societal and, most importantly, environmental points of view. That is, we need to demonstrate that the reuse of waste materials is environmentally safe. In this feasibility study we focus on an important source of essential for agriculture nutrients - sewage sludge. More specifically, we look into possibilities to design a cost-efficient wastewater treatment process capable to remove and completely destroy a group of persistent organic pollutants - per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). In order to do that, we will study sources of PFAS in a municipal wastewater collection network, as well as perform SWOT analysis of implementing tailored PFAS-treatment system depending on the sources and types of PFAS in municipal wastewater.

Sludge