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Hydrothermal alkaline conversion of sewage sludge: optimization of process parameters and characterization of humic acid

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Abstract

Sewage sludge (SS) dewatering is a key step in sludge disposal, which plays an important role in reducing sludge volume, facilitating transportation and subsequent treatment. In this paper, a facile hydrothermal-alkaline treatment for SS was proposed, which can be used for sludge dewatering and humic acid (HA) recycling at the same time. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to determine the optimal conditions, and a mathematical model was established to accurately predict the changes of sludge water content and the extraction rate of HA. Under the optimal conditions of 170 °C/42 min/0.05 (for hydrothermal temperature, hydrothermal time, and mass ratio of KOH to wet sludge, respectively), the water content decreased to 46.7% and the extraction rate of HA (with a purity of 96.2%) was 89.1%. The improvement of the dewatering performance effectively facilitates the subsequent disposal of the sludge. The hydrothermal-alkaline method not only realizes the efficient dehydration of the sludge, but also obtains HA from the sludge extract. The obtained HA has potential economic value in the fields of agriculture, biological medicine, environment, and the like.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge Prof. Su XT for his continuous help and support. The authors acknowledge the research and testing platforms provided by the South China University of Technology and China-Singapore International Joint Research Institute.

Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analyzed during study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1901216) and the Guangdong Science and Technology Program (2020B121201003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Energy, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Wastes Pollution Control and Recycling, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Chen Qiu, Xintai Su & Zhang Lin

  2. Dongjiang Environmental Company Limited, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518057, People’s Republic of China

    Wenbing Xu & Yanjie Wang

  3. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Jiakuan Yang

  4. China-Singapore International Joint Research Institute, Guangzhou, 510000, People’s Republic of China

    Chen Qiu, Xintai Su & Zhang Lin

Authors
  1. Chen Qiu
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  2. Wenbing Xu
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  3. Yanjie Wang
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  4. Jiakuan Yang
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  5. Xintai Su
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  6. Zhang Lin
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Investigation, experiment design, and data collection were performed by CQ, XS, ZL, and JY. WX and YW provided study materials. The first draft of the manuscript was written by CQ and all authors commented and revised on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xintai Su.

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Qiu, C., Xu, W., Wang, Y. et al. Hydrothermal alkaline conversion of sewage sludge: optimization of process parameters and characterization of humic acid. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 57695–57705 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14711-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14711-x

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