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Preliminary investigation on the effect of earthworm and vegetation for sludge treatment in sludge treatment reed beds system

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Abstract

Sewage sludge treatment is becoming one of the most significant challenges for domestic wastewater management. Optimization of sludge management for reducing sludge handling cost in wastewater treatment plant is highly demanded. Sludge treatment reed bed system (STRB) is an eco-environmentally friendly technology which has a low investment input and reduced costs for operation and maintenance. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of earthworm assistant STRB in terms of sludge dewatering and stabilization of surplus sludge. The results show that draining and evapotranspiration (ET) take the main role for sludge dewatering; with maximum of 77 and 43 % water was removed through draining and ET, respectively. Plants improved ET rate up to 13.1 % in the planted STRB compare with the unplanted STRB. The combination of plants and earthworms increased ET rate of 20.9 % more than the control STRB (unplanted without earthworms). The planted STRB with earthworm reached the lowest water content in accumulated sludge of 46 %. There was a systematic increase of total solids (TS) concentration from 0.5 % in the influent to 25–54 % in the accumulated sludge. Earthworms enhanced the sludge stabilization dramatic with the ratio of volatile solids (VS)/TS decreased from 49 % in the influent to 18 % in the accumulated sludge in the earthworm assistant STRB. The results demonstrated a good efficiency for sludge dewatering and stabilization with the assistant of earthworms in STRBs, which can be an alternative technology for sludge treatment in wastewater treatment plants.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (Grant No. 2014CFB928) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Program No. 52902-0900206160). It is also supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51379038 and No. 21206092), and the Science and Technology Project of Education Department in Guangxi Province (Grant No. YB2014151).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Shizishan 1, 430070, Wuhan, China

    Zhongbing Chen, Shanshan Hu & Chengxiao Hu

  2. Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 16521, Prague, Czech Republic

    Zhongbing Chen & Jan Vymazal

  3. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, 541004, Guilin, China

    Liangliang Huang

  4. School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, 200093, Shanghai, China

    Hongbo Liu

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  1. Zhongbing Chen
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  2. Shanshan Hu
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  3. Chengxiao Hu
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  4. Liangliang Huang
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  5. Hongbo Liu
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Correspondence to Chengxiao Hu.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Chen, Z., Hu, S., Hu, C. et al. Preliminary investigation on the effect of earthworm and vegetation for sludge treatment in sludge treatment reed beds system. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 11957–11963 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6399-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6399-5

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