Municipal wastewater sludge as a sustainable bioresource in the United States

Journal Article · Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Environmental Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.04.032· OSTI ID:1457058

Seiple, Timothy E. ; Coleman, André M.; Skaggs, Richard L.

Within the United States and Puerto Rico, publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) process 130.5 Gl/d (34.5 Bgal/d) of wastewater, producing sludge as a waste product. Emerging technologies offer novel waste-to-energy pathways through whole sludge conversion into biofuels. Assessing the feasibility, scalability and tradeoffs of various energy conversion pathways is difficult in the absence of highly spatially resolved estimates of sludge production. In this study, average wastewater solids concentrations and removal rates, and site specific daily average influent flow are used to estimate site specific annual sludge production on a dry weight basis for >15,000 POTWs. Current beneficial uses, regional production hotspots and feedstock aggregation potential are also assessed. Analyses indicate 1) POTWs capture 12.56 Tg/y (13.84 MT/y) of dry solids; 2) 50% are not beneficially utilized, and 3) POTWs can support seven regions that aggregate >910 Mg/d (1000 T/d) of sludge within a travel distance of 100 km.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• Grant/Contract Number: DE.AC06.76RLO 1830; AC0576RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1457058
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1364387
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-125058; S0301479717303808; PII: S0301479717303808
• Journal Information: Journal of Environmental Management, Journal Name: Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 197 Journal Issue: C; ISSN 0301-4797
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES