Sludge Management for the 21st Century

With improvements in wastewater treatment has come an increase in the production of sewage sludge. In addition the materials disposed into the sewerage system by modern society mean that sludge is not only rich in organic carbon and pathogens, but also in heavy metals and other pollutants. The IWA Specialist Group in Sludge Management recognised these challenges, and is addressing them in a series of specialist conferences: the one in April 1999 in Perth, Australia focused on thermal processes and their management. With over a hundred participants from more than 30 countries the conference proved highly successful. These proceedings contain papers which were selected from the original 37 presentations after passing through the review process. Papers covered the whole range of thermal processes: hydrothermal oxidation, gasification, pyrolysis, incineration, melting to reuse of process residues. Management issues and assessment of sustainability of thermal processes based on life-cycle analyses were debated, with a focus on "value-adding" sludge management systems and renewable resource options.