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Environmental benefits of using sewage sludge in the production of ceramic bricks

  • Environmental Sustainability and Remediation
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Abstract

The production of sludge from the sewage treatment plants is increasing as a result of population increase and public policies to improve the sanitation sector. This sludge presents a potential risk to health and the environment representing major challenge for sanitation companies regarding treatment and final disposal of this material. The solution is in the circular economy concept: This sludge presents favorable characteristics to be used as raw material in the ceramic industry. This study seeks to quantify the environmental impacts related to the atmospheric emissions caused and to the consumption of resources when 10% of clay is replaced by sewage sludge in the production of bricks. Life cycle assessment tools were used to establish a comparison between the common scenario of the brick production using ceramic mass only from clay and the scenario with the incorporation of 10% of sewage sludge. The results revealed that the incorporation of the sewage sludge has multiple benefits, regarding the decrease of the environmental impacts in all the categories studied: 15% in the energy savings, 15% in the terrestrial acidification and the formation of fine particles, 10% in scarcity of mineral resources, and 8–10% in formation of photochemical ozone.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the State University of Montes Claros (UNIMONTES).

Funding

This work is financially supported by: Base Funding – UIDB/04708/2020 of the CONSTRUCT – Instituto de I&D em Estruturas e Construções - funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC). This work is funded by the national funds through FCT ,Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the Scientific Employment Stimulus (Institutional Call, CEECINST/00049/2018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CONSTRUCT-LABEST, Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Nara Cangussu & Lino Maia

  2. Center of Exact and Technological Sciences, Civil Engineering Course, State University of Montes Claros (UNIMONTES), Montes Claros, MG, 39401-089, Brazil

    Nara Cangussu & Luana Vasconcelos

  3. Faculty of Exact Sciences and Engineering, University of Madeira, Campus da Penteada, 9020-105, Funchal, Portugal

    Lino Maia

Authors
  1. Nara Cangussu
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  2. Luana Vasconcelos
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  3. Lino Maia
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Contributions

Nara Cangussu: Data curation, formal analysis, investigation, funding acquisition, methodology, resources, writing-original draft, visualization. Luana Vasconcelos: Formal analysis, investigation. Lino Maia: Conceptualization, funding acquisition, supervision, validation, writing-review and editing.

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Correspondence to Lino Maia.

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Cangussu, N., Vasconcelos, L. & Maia, L. Environmental benefits of using sewage sludge in the production of ceramic bricks. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 25344–25355 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18670-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18670-9

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