Sewage sludge contains a high level of nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and organic matter, with a high recovery value. The presence of heavy metals in sludges has become a major limiting factor in the utilization of these sludges. Therefore, the removal of heavy metals before land application of sewage sludge has become very necessary. Two municipal sewage sludges (S1 and S2) were collected from municipal wastewater plants in Wuhan city and were studied by oscillation leaching experiments with combination of saponin and citric acid to evaluate their removal efficiencies for Cu, Pb and Zn at different volume ratios (20:1-1:20), ratios of solid to liquid (1:20-1:80), reaction times (0-2880 min), and leaching times (1-4). The heavy metal fractions in the sewage sludges were analyzed before and after leaching to study changes in the stability and mobility of heavy metals by calculating a stability factor[relative bonding strength of heavy metals (IR)] and a mobility factor (MF). The results show that the highest removal efficiency of Cu, Pb, and Zn was 43.16% (S1), 32.45% (S2) and 38.69% (S1), respectively under the removal conditions of a volume ratio (saponin:citric acid) of 5:1, solid-liquid ratio of 1:60, and leaching time of 1440 min. The removal efficiencies of Cu and Pb were significantly enhanced and Zn had a small increase with longer leaching times, which was significantly different after two to three washing times. The highest removal rate of Cu, Pb, and Zn was 78.89% (S1), 77.08% (S2) and 49.39% (S1) after four washing times, respectively. Beyond acid soluble and reducible fractions, other forms of heavy metals have very low removal rates after a single leaching. The removal rates of heavy metal fractions increased by increasing the leaching time, particularly for Pb, which in the residual fraction was significantly increased. The stability and mobility of heavy metals changes after each leaching. For example, the IR of Cu, Pb, and Zn increased to 43.63% (S1), 39.44% (S2) and 32.00% (S1), respectively, and the MF of these heavy metals decreased from 30.19% to 79.45% in the sewage sludges after four washing events.
Keywords: citric acid; co-leaching; heavy metal; mobility factor; saponin; stability factor.