An experimental examination of energy production from domestic-based waste water treatment sludge

Abstract

In Turkey, treatment sludge that obtained from domestic wastewater and water treatment plants causes storage and disposal problems. In the current situation, there are 69 domestic wastewater treatment plants in Turkey and this corresponds to approximately 13% of the population. Total 500 thousand tons of treatment sludge is released from these treatment plants, annually. In the case of all municipalities establish a wastewater treatment plant in Turkey, approximately, 4 million tons of treatment sludge is projected to release in a year. Additionally, 3.6 million tons of treatment sludge will be obtained from the manufacturing industry. In other words, approximately 7.6 ↔ 106 tons of treatment sludge potential exists in Turkey and in the same amount of the storage area (7.6 ↔106m3) is needed for the storage of this treatment sludge, perennially. In this study, energy production from wastewater treatment sludge through the anaerobic method has been investigated and compared to the aerobic treatment method. Also, advantages and disadvantages of both methods have been introduced. In order to determine biogas production capacity from treatment sludge, some amount of sample sludge has been taken from the final sedimentation tank before belt press in a wastewater treatment plant and it has been experimentally analyzed.