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Bioleaching Approach for Enhancing Sewage Sludge Dewaterability

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Sustainable Management and Utilization of Sewage Sludge

Abstract

Sewage sludge is an unavoidable byproduct of the wastewater treatment course. Rising population, and growing urbanization contributes to a sizeable quantity of sewage sludge production. Disposal of such a huge amount of waste requires environmentally safe and economically viable options. Though the applications of sludge to the agricultural field can help recycling in nutrients and organic matter, the heavy metal in sewage sludge, various toxic substances and pathogens often make it unfit for direct agricultural application without any treatment. Moreover, the sewage sludge is very bulky and hence the cost of transport and/or subsequent processing/treatment becomes difficult. Dewatering of sewage sludge can help in reducing sludge volume, facilitates easy transport, increases the calorific value and can decrease leachate output in the landfill site. The strong interaction between solids and water in sewage sludge makes it difficult to remove water. Conditioning of sludge by physical and chemical methods has been successful improvement of the dewaterability of sludge, however, these practices are limited by high cost, high energy requirement, and use of non-green chemicals. Bioleaching, a bio-acidification strategy widely discussed for heavy metal decontamination, is operative in improvement of the dewaterability of sludge and gives many benefits over other methods. In the present chapter, the process of bioleaching, its process and mechanism and role in improving the dewaterability of sludge have been discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. M.S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management, R.Sitapur, Odisha, India

    Subhashisa Praharaj, Sagar Maitra, Lalichetti Sagar, Tanmoy Shankar & Dinkar Gaikwad

  2. Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute, Dinajpur, Bangladesh

    Akbar Hossain

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Dr. Khem Singh Gill Akal College of Agriculture, Eternal University, Baru Sahib, Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, India

    Ajar Nath Yadav

  4. G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India

    Usha Das

  5. Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, India

    Biswajit Pramanick

Authors
  1. Subhashisa Praharaj
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  2. Sagar Maitra
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  3. Akbar Hossain
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  4. Lalichetti Sagar
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  5. Ajar Nath Yadav
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  6. Usha Das
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  7. Tanmoy Shankar
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  9. Dinkar Gaikwad
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sagar Maitra .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science, Academy of Biology and Biotechnology, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

    Vishnu D. Rajput

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Dr. Khem Singh Gill Akal College of Agriculture, Eternal University, Sirmour, India

    Ajar Nath Yadav

  3. Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University, Jobner, Jaipur, India

    Hanuman Singh Jatav

  4. Department Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

    Satish Kumar Singh

  5. Department of Soil Science, Academy of Biology and Biotechnology, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

    Tatiana Minkina

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Praharaj, S. et al. (2022). Bioleaching Approach for Enhancing Sewage Sludge Dewaterability. In: Rajput, V.D., Yadav, A.N., Jatav, H.S., Singh, S.K., Minkina, T. (eds) Sustainable Management and Utilization of Sewage Sludge. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85226-9_3

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