Innovative Technological Approach for the Cyclic Nutrients Adsorption by Post-Digestion Sewage Sludge-Based Ash Co-Formed with Some Nanostructural Additives under a Circular Economy Framework

This paper presents a new, innovative technological approach, in line with Circular Economy principles, to the effective management of sludge generated during municipal wastewater treatment processes and subsequently used for biogas production. This approach allows for optimal, functional, and controlled cascade-type biotechnological thermal conversion of carbon compounds present in sewage sludge, later in solid digestate residues (after biogas production), and finally in the ash structure (after incineration, purposefully dosed nanostructural additives make the production of a useful solid product possible, especially for cyclic adsorption and slow release of nutrients (N, P, K) in the soil). The idea is generally targeted at achieving an innovative conversion cycle under a Circular Economy framework. In particular, it is based on an energy carrier (methane biogas) and direct energy production. The functionalized combustion by-products can be advantageous in agriculture. The use of ashes with nanostructural additives (halloysite, kaolinite) from combustion of sewage sludge after the anaerobic fermentation as an adsorbent of selected nutrients important in agriculture (Na⁺, K⁺, NO₃^-, SO₄^2-, PO₄^3-, Cl^-) was verified at laboratory scale. The tests were carried out both for pure ash and for the ash derived from combustion with the purposeful addition of kaolinite or halloysite. The equilibrium conditions for nitrate, potassium, sodium, phosphate(V), sulphate(VI), and chloride ions from aqueous solutions with the use of the three adsorbent structures were determined. The obtained innovative results were interpreted theoretically with adsorption isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Jovanović). The most spectacular and clearly favorable results related to the influence of nanostructural additives in the process of sludge combustion, and formation of sorption surfaces under high temperature conditions were identified in the case of sorption-based separation of phosphate(V) ions (an increase from 1.13% to 61.24% with the addition of kaolinite, and even up to 76.19% with addition of halloysite).