Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fraction Distributions of Phosphorus in Sewage Sludge and Sludge Ash

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Waste and Biomass Valorization Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Previous publications on phosphorus (P) in sewage sludge and sludge ash have mostly focused on the total contents, while information on the fraction distribution of P is rarely examined. In this study, P in sewage sludge was, for the first time, fractioned into NH4Cl-P, BD-P, NaOH-P, HCl-P and Res-P via increasing chemical reagents. Its speciation evolution during sludge incineration was also investigated. Results showed that the total P content in sewage sludge had a wide range (0.97–1.74%), and NaOH-P and Res-P were the dominant fractions, which contributed with 67.1–81.2% of sludge P. Sludge incineration process increased the relative proportion of HCl-P from the initial 9.1–11.7% (sewage sludge) to 63.0–78.0% (from ash when sludge was incinerated at 900°C). Furthermore, P in sludge ash was respectively extracted by acid (HCl) and base (NaOH). It was found that the extraction percentage by HCl reached more than 90%, while that by NaOH was less than 30%. The different extraction efficiencies could be explained by the P sequential extraction procedure applied in this study.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Yuan, X.Z., Huang, H.J., Zeng, G.M., Li, H., Wang, J.Y., Zhou, C.F., Zhu, H.N., Pei, X.K., Liu, Z.F., Liu, Z.T.: Total concentrations and chemical speciation of heavy metals in liquefaction residues of sewage sludge. Bioresour. Technol. 102, 4104–4110 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Xie, C.S., Zhao, J., Tang, J., Xu, J., Xu, X.H.: The phosphorus fractions and alkaline phosphatase activities in sludge. Bioresour. Technol. 102, 2455–2461 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Cai, Q.Y., Mo, C.H., Wu, Q.T., Zeng, Q.Y., Katsoyiannis, A.: Concentration and speciation of heavy metals in six different sewage sludge-composts. J. Hazard. Mater. 147, 1063–1072 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Stark, K., Plaza, E., Hultman, B.: Phosphorus release from ash, dried sludge and sludge residue from supercritical water oxidation by acid or base. Chemosphere 62, 827–832 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Suzuki, K., Waki, M., Yasuda, T., Fukumoto, Y., Kuroda, K., Sakai, T., Suzuki, N., Suzuki, R., Matsuba, K.: Distribution of phosphorus, copper and zinc in activated sludge treatment process of swine wastewater. Bioresour. Technol. 101, 9399–9404 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Teglia, C., Tremier, A., Martel, J.L.: Characterization of solid digestates: Part 1, Review of existing indicators to assess solid digestates agricultural use. Waste Biomass Valor 2, 43–58 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. González Medeiros, J., Pérez Cid, B., Fernández Gómez, E.: Analytical phosphorus fractionation in sewage sludge and sediment samples. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 381, 873–878 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Jin, X.C., Wang, S.R., Pang, Y., Wu, F.C.: Phosphorus fractions and the effect of pH on the phosphorus release of the sediments from different trophic areas in Taihu Lake, China. Environ. Pol. 139, 288–295 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kaiserli, A., Voutsa, D., Samara, C.: Phosphorus fractionation in lake sediments—Lakes Volvi and Koronia, N. Greece. Chemosphere 46, 1147–1155 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Liu, Z.H., Qian, G.R., Sun, Y., Xu, R., Zhou, J.Z., Xu, Y.F.: Speciation evolutions of heavy metals during the sewage sludge incineration in a laboratory scale incinerator. Energy Fuels 24, 2470–2478 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Lopes, M.H., Abelha, P., Lapa, N., Oliveira, J.S., Cabrita, I., Gulyurtlu, I.: The behaviour of ashes and heavy metals during the co-combustion of sewage sludges in a fluidised bed. Waste Manage. 23, 859–870 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Tang, P., Zhao, Y.C., Xia, F.Y.: Thermal behaviors and heavy metal vaporization of phosphatized tannery sludge in incineration process. J. Environ. Sci. 20, 1146–1152 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Biswas, B.K., Inoue, K., Harada, H., Ohto, K., Kawakita, H.: Leaching of phosphorus from incinerated sewage sludge ash by means of acid extraction followed by adsorption on orange waste gel. J. Environ. Sci. 21, 1753–1760 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Franz, M.: Phosphate fertilizer from sewage sludge ash (SSA). Waste Manage. 28, 1809–1818 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Adam, C., Peplinski, B., Michaelis, M., Kley, G., Simon, F.G.: Thermochemical treatment of sewage sludge ashes for phosphorus recovery. Waste Manage. 29, 1122–1128 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Hong, K., Tarutani, N., Shinya, Y., Kajiuchi, T.: Study on the recovery of phosphorus from waste-activated sludge incinerator ash. J. Environ. Sci. Health. 40, 617–631 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Cohen, Y.: Phosphorus dissolution from ash of incinerated sewage sludge and animal carcasses using sulphuric acid. Environ. Technol. 30, 1215–1226 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Turner, B.L., Leytem, A.B.: Phosphorus compounds in sequential extracts of animal manures: chemical speciation and a novel fractionation procedure. Environ. Sci. Technol. 38, 6101–6108 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Sato, S., Solomon, D., Hyland, C., Ketterings, Q.M., Lehmann, J.: Phosphorus speciation in manure and manure-amended soils using XANES spectroscopy. Environ. Sci. Technol. 39, 7485–7491 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Psenner, R., Pucska, R., Sager, M.: Die fractionierung organischer und anorganischer phosphorverbindungen von sedimenten versuch einer Definition okologisch wichtiger tractionen. Arch. Hydrobiol. 10, 115–155 (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Hupfer, M., Gachter, R., Giovanoli, R.: Transformation of phosphorus species in settling seston and during early sediment diagenesis. Aquat. Sci. 57, 305–324 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. HA, A.P.: Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 20th edn. American Public Health Association, Washington, DC (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Pastene, A.J.: Factors affecting the crop availability of phosphorus in sewage sludge amended soils. M.S thesis. University of Wisconsin, Madison (1981)

  24. Hedley, M., McLaughlin, M.: Reaction of phosphorus fertilizers and by-products in soils. In: Phosphorus: agriculture and the environment. American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, pp. 181–252 (2005)

  25. Wakene, N., Jens, K., Dirk, M., Narayana, A., Lucia, Z., Peter, L.: Phosphorus speciation in agro-industrial byproducts: sequential fractionation, solution P NMR, and PK- and L2, 3-Edge XANES spectroscopy. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44, 2092–2097 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Zhou, Q., Gibson, C.E., Zhu, Y.: Evaluation of phosphorus bioavailability in sediments of three contrasting lakes in China and the UK. Chemosphere 42, 221–225 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Peplinski, B., Adam, C., Michaelis, M., Kley, G., Emmerling, F., Simon, F.G.: Reaction sequences in the thermochemical treatment of sewage sludge ashes revealed by X-ray powder diffraction-A contribution to the European project SUSAN. Z. Kristallogr. Suppl. 30, 459–464 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Kuligowski, K., Poulsen, T.G.: Phosphorus and zinc dissolution from thermally gasified piggery waste ash using sulphuric acid. Bioresour. Technol. 101, 5123–5130 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20977066), the Program of Shanghai Subject Chief Scientist (10XD1404200) and the Specialized Research Fund for Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (200802470029).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Huacheng Xu, Hua Zhang, Liming Shao & Pinjng He

Authors
  1. Huacheng Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hua Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Liming Shao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Pinjng He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pinjng He.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xu, H., Zhang, H., Shao, L. et al. Fraction Distributions of Phosphorus in Sewage Sludge and Sludge Ash. Waste Biomass Valor 3, 355–361 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-011-9103-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-011-9103-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation