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Sludge Waste Management Techniques and Challenges in Water Resources Supply

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Handbook of Solid Waste Management

Abstract

The sludge production has escalated due to the increased demands for clean water throughout the world. Sludge management has become a significant challenge whereby the sludge removal operation generated from numerous industrial activities is recognized as an ecological burden for the society. Sludge management can be divided into different stages such as sludge production, treatment, and disposal. In order to safely manage sludge efficiently, many sludge management studies have been reviewed to identify the advance scientific and technical information covering aspects of sludge production, characterization, management, agricultural and construction material reuse, and ultimate disposal. The sludge production (in terms of quantity and quality) at the wastewater treatment plants where the sludge accumulation rates are being evaluated. In addition to that, spatial distribution of bottom sludge has significant impact on the sludge production in order to estimate the effectual sludge removal and the most suitable disposal technique. Sludge treatment techniques such as aerobic digestion and anaerobic digestion in advance of agricultural usage are influenced by local climate conditions where temperature plays an important role in the performance of the treatments. Other treatment techniques often applied is incineration. Some of the countries favors thermal processes considering their need of sludge volume reduction. Risk studies of direct land application of the sludge as agricultural fertilizers had been ongoing, and the mineralized nitrogen in the fertilizers are also quantified due to the potential leaking of excessive nitrogen into the nearest groundwater supply available.

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Acknowledgments

This study is collectively supported by Universiti Sains Malaysia under the Short-Term Grant (304.111.0.PAWAM.60313041), Bridging Grant (304.111.0.PAWAM.6316094) and RUI Grant (304.PAWAM.8014020). Funding was also received from the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Malaysian Fellowship 2016 (304.PAWAM.6050374.L117), International Foundation for Science and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (W/5334-2 and 304.PAWAM.6050364.I100).

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Mansor, M., Fatehah, M.O. (2021). Sludge Waste Management Techniques and Challenges in Water Resources Supply. In: Baskar, C., Ramakrishna, S., Baskar, S., Sharma, R., Chinnappan, A., Sehrawat, R. (eds) Handbook of Solid Waste Management. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7525-9_43-1

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