Wastewater treatment plant residual sludge utilization as a potential unconventional energy source

Abstract

This work is an attempt to describe the advantages, possibilities and INCD – ECOIND results in the utilization of residual organic sludge from animal breeding farms and municipal waste water treatment plants as a potential energy source. INCD – ECOIND (former ICPEAR) started the research in this area in 1980 under the direction of dr.Craiu, manager of our Institute at that time. At the beginning, we elaborated technology design and building of an industrial biogas plant in Timisoara (1983) with a capacity of 250 m3. After that we have developed other large industrial biogas plants with capacities up to 1500 m3, at several industrial breeding farms such as Girov, Veresti, Bacau, Caracal, a.s.o.. After 1989, when the majority of the large industrial animal breeding farms were dismantled, our research was oriented to optimize the anaerobic digestion process of municipal wastewater treatment plants sludge (municipal WWTP’s, Pitesti municipal WWTP) and to characterize the fermented sludge in order to evaluate the possibility to use them as agriculture fertiliser (Constanta and Mangalia WWTP’s fermented sludge). INCD – ECOIND’s conception is that organic residual sludge will be not only a real renewable source of energy in the future but an excellent agriculture fertilizer as well. Our research efforts are now conducted in these directions.