Occurrence, geochemical fractionation, and environmental risk assessment of major and trace elements in sewage sludge

François Nkinahamira; Fidèle Suanon; Qiaoqiao Chi; Yeyun Li; Meiling Feng; Xiaoying Huang; Chang-Ping Yu; Qian Sun

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109427

Occurrence, geochemical fractionation, and environmental risk assessment of major and trace elements in sewage sludge

J Environ Manage. 2019 Nov 1:249:109427. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109427. Epub 2019 Aug 24.

Authors

François Nkinahamira¹, Fidèle Suanon², Qiaoqiao Chi², Yeyun Li³, Meiling Feng⁴, Xiaoying Huang⁴, Chang-Ping Yu⁵, Qian Sun⁶

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China; Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, China.
⁵ CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China; Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 106, Taiwan.
⁶ CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China. Electronic address: qsun@iue.ac.cn.

PMID: 31450198
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109427

Abstract

Industrialization and accelerated population growth have created a huge amount of sewage sludge. Many studies have reported the sewage sludge as a sink of major and trace elements, but less is known about their geochemical fractionations. In order to assess the mobility, the distribution, bioavailability, and toxicity of those elements in sludge, we collected the sewage sludge samples from all the seven wastewater treatment plants in Xiamen City, China. Results revealed a strong spatial variation and the occurrence of 48 elements with concentrations ranging from 1.00×10^-2 mg kg^-1 (Re) to 9.03×10¹ g kg^-1 (Fe) on the basis of dry sludge weight. Sequential extraction procedure showed that residual and oxidizable fractions were the main geochemical fractions of most studied elements. However, Ca, Mn, Sr, and Ni were mainly bound to acid-exchangeable fractions, while Fe, Zn, Cd, Cr, Co, and V were mainly distributed in the reducible fractions. The contamination factor and risk assessment code indicated that Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Cr, Co, Sr, Ca, Mn, Mo, Re, and W were highly mobile with less retention time and exerted high environmental risks through sludge land application. The sludge disposal strategy should consider not only the total concentrations of a broad range of elements but also their bioavailability.

Keywords: Co-occurrence; Geochemical fractions; Risk assessment; Sewage sludge; Temporal and spatial variations.

MeSH terms

China
Cities
Metals, Heavy*
Risk Assessment
Sewage
Trace Elements*
Waste Disposal, Fluid

Substances

Metals, Heavy
Sewage
Trace Elements