Treatment, Disposal and Beneficial Use Option for Sewage Sludge

하수슬러지 처리기술 동향 및 최적화 처리방안

Sewage sludge produced in Korea was 1,275,800 tons (dewatered sludge cake) per year in 1996, which is 3,495 tons per day, 0.303% of 11,526,100 tons per day of sewage treated in 79 sewage treatment plants. Sludge production has been and will be increasing in accordance with construction of new facilities for sewage treatment. Most of the sludge is currently disposed by landfill and ocean dumping, but it is becoming difficult to find suitable sites for landfill, particularly in big cities such as Seoul. In addition, rapid increase of landfill cost is anticipated in a near future. Current trend for sludge disposal in advanced countries is land application. Over the past 10 to 20 years in the United States, sludge management practices have changed significantly, moving from disposal to beneficial use. They use biosolid for utilization instead of sludge for disposal. Under the Clean Water Act of 1972, amended in 1987 by Congress, the U.S. EPA was required to develop regulations for the use and disposal of sewage sludge. The EPA assessed the potential for pollutants in sewage sludge to affect public health and the environment through a number of different routes of exposure. The Agency also assessed the potential risk to human health through contamination of drinking water sources or surface water when sludge is disposed on land. The Final Rules were signed by the EPA Administrator and were published (Federal Register, 1993). These rules state that sewage sludge shall not be applied to land if the concentration of any pollutant in the sludge exceeds the ceiling concentration. In addition, the cumulative loading rate for each pollutant shall not exceed the cumulative pollutant loading rate nor should the concentration of each pollutant in the sludge exceed the monthly average concentration for the pollutant. The annual pollutant loading rate generally applies to applications of sewage sludge on agricultural lands. The most popular beneficial use of sewage sludge is land application. The sludge has to be stabilized for appling to land. One of the stabilization process for sewage sludge is lime stabilization process. The stabilization process is consisted of the stabilizing process and the drying process. Stabilization reactor can be a drum type reactor in which a crossed mixer is equipped. The additive agents are a very reactive mixture of calcium oxide and others. The stabilized sludge is dried in sun drier or rotary kiln.