Why is so much sewage sludge generated?

The most common treatment method of sewage water is known as the activated sludge treatment process, which was first developed in the UK over 100 years ago. In this process, microbes are added to treat the sludge by consuming organic sludge material (excreta). Until recently, this method was considered the best practice because of its easy execution; treated water is aerated into a tank where microbes eat the organic material. However, recent arguments against the method have pointed out its weak points.

For this method to treat a large volume of sewage water, a large amount of microbes is required, which means that a large volume of air also needs to be generated to support the large microbial colonies. Consequently, a great amount of electric power is required to run the air blower. Also, microbes have a high generation cycle rate, which produces a high volume of excess sludge from the additional byproduct of dead microbial content. With increased environmental awareness among societies, these problem points have become global issues. Although we call it “sewage sludge”, a large portion actually consists of dead microbial matter.


WEF Institute of Technology Inc.

FAQ

     
What is industrial waste disposal?
What is sludge (industrial waste)?
What is sludge treatment?
Why is so much sewage sludge generated?
Is sewage sludge simply treated by drying, incinerating, or landfilling?
Is WEF’s α-Gaia system effective to treat sewage sludge?
Do you have technologies other than the α-Gaia system?
How can we adopt CLIRAC treatment in our facility?
What is the procedure for CLARIC treatment at our site?
Is CLIRAC treated sludge recyclable?
Petroleum sludge is known to be very difficult to treat, therefore, such sludge is normally left untreated. Is your technology able to treat and recycle this type of sludge?
The demand for a new treatment technology has emerged because the current methods suffer from issues with energy-consumption and disposal limitations. Is WEF capable of providing technology to solve these two issues?
Pressurized flotation separation process of oil requires a large amount of chemicals in addition to high maintenance and cost for disposing the separated oil substance as industrial waste. Does the SBC-Pro treatment system help solve these issues?
Waste disposal is broadly categorized as one of two types, industrial waste or general waste. For general waste disposal, unlike Japan, China and other Asian countries are lacking strict waste recycling regulations, even though their landfill capacities are getting smaller and smaller. We often see photos of children in such countries working and searching for valuables in the waste disposal sites (raw garbage). Do you have any solution to treat general waste without waste segregation?
What is active oxygen?
Is active oxygen potentially harmful to humans?
Are there merits that outweigh the risks of active oxygen? / Why did you decide to use this material?
What makes WEF’s technology in active oxygen a “world-leading” technology?
Is active oxygen easy to generate?
How does active oxygen work?
What types of material can be treated with α-Gaia?
Is there any health risk using α-Gaia?