Sewage Sludge Minimization by means of Wet Oxidation: Process Performance and Economic Sustainability

Today, several technologies and management strategies are proposed and applied in WWTPs to minimize sludge production and contamination and their techno-economic feasibility has to be carefully evaluated. Wet oxidation (WO) process is an alternative solution to conventional incineration for converting sewage sludge to inert residues. In this work (which is being conducted within the EU project "ROUTES"), based on bench scale tests results, a mass balance was drawn for a WWTP (500,000 PE), where it was supposed to install a WO stage for sludge minimization. The design of treatment units and the estimation of capital and operation costs were then performed. Subsequently, a procedure for technical-economic assessment (benchmarking) was developed. Basically, this procedure consists in the definition and ranking of several technical (e.g. reliability of the technology, complexity and integration with the existing facilities, amount of residues to be disposed of or recovered,...) and economic aspects. Preliminary results have shown WO to be a suitable solution for sludge minimization.