Sludge biochar as an absorbent for pharmaceutical residues

Master’s thesis proposal spring 2024: Sludge biochar as an absorbent for pharmaceutical residues

Background

The use of municipal sewage sludge as a phosphorus fertiliser and soil conditioner on farmlands has been debated for decades due to the pre-cautionary principle concerning dispersal and accumulation of pollutants. Production of biochar through pyrolysis of sewage sludge seems to degrade organic micropollutants and remove some heavy metals.

Sewage sludge derived biochar has a large specific surface area, high absorbability, stable chemical properties, a rich porous structure, and presence of various functional groups. These properties have shown to be of great importance when using sludge biochar as an absorbent for micropollutants, e.g. pharmaceutical residues such as carbamazepine, diclofenac and fluoroquinolone.

The municipal association VA SYD, which operates the wastewater utilities in Malmö, Lund, Burlöv, Eslöv och Lomma, are now performing a pilot project on sludge pyrolysis, at the Ellinge Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Eslöv, called Testbed Ellinge.

The pilot will pyrolyse sludge from different WWTPs in Sweden to investigate the difference in sludge biochar characteristics depending on the choice of wastewater treatment processes, sludge treatment and the pyrolysis unit operating conditions.

Objective

The main objective of this thesis project is to investigate the ability of different sludge biochars to remove pharmaceutical residues.

Method

The methods used will include literature studies and experimental laboratory work. The experimental work will include i) activation of pyrolysed sludge(s) from Testbed Ellinge, ii) verification of the activation using e.g. UV-absorbance and iii) verification of activation by testing organic micropollutant removal using selected radiolabelled compound(s).

When?

Spring 2024

Interested in this Master´s thesis?

Contact one of the supervisors for the project:

Åsa Davidsson, assistant professor, Lund University asa.davidsson@chemeng.lth.se
David Gustavsson, research leader, VA SYD/Sweden Water Research david.gustavsson@vasyd.se