Advancing circular economy: A study of drinking water sludge for potential uses

Abstract

The high demand for drinking water has increased the by-products from treatment plants, notably during coagulation-flocculation, leading to substantial sludges' accumulation. This study aims to focus on the characterization of drinking water treatment sludge (DWTS) batches from the three last years and statically studying it's uniformity, as exploring potential repurposing options. The samples were characterized using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES), Loss On Ignition (LOI), and Granulometric analysis. The results evinced that DWTS have a sandy nature, the organic fraction takes third of the DWTS’ chemical composition, the amount of Al2O3 + SiO2 + Fe2O3 is slightly different, with 55.84, 57.47, and 56.14 % for DWTS21, DWTS22, and DWTS23 respectively, as per ANOVA results, which exhibited the consistency sludge composition among the samples, providing valuable insights into repurposing DWTS, and contributing to sustainable and eco-friendly practices in the construction industry especially DWTS21, which presents higher content of CaO with 2.95 %.

Keywords

• Characterization
• Drinking water treatment sludge (DWTS)
• Circular economy
• Waste management
• Mortars