A New Resource Recovery Process for Refining Sludge Generated by a Paper Manufacturing Company

Literature Review

The paper industry needs to recycle the organic waste it produces in an economically viable and environmentally acceptable way. Sludge from paper mills has been successfully used as a soil conditioner for agricultural and forest crops (Cline & Chong, 1991; Henry, 1991), used as reclaimed land (Bellamy et al., 1990; Pervaiz & Sain, 2015), and also used as a medium production vessel for producing crops in cultivation greenhouses and nurseries (Chong & Cline, 1993). Another popular strategy is incineration, which is used to reduce capacity and generate electricity (Faubert et al., 2016). Other less common methods include anaerobic digestion (Meyer & Edwards, 2014), pyrolysis (Reckamp et al., 2014), bioethanol and hydrogen production (Moreau et al., 2015), and composites are used for various applications (Faubert et al., 2016). However, most of these methods fail because when dealing with a large amount of primary paper mill sludge (PPMS), it is often uneconomical and even harmful to the environment. Under these situations, biological treatment of sludge is more beneficial because, in addition to the volume reduction, a product with resale value can be produced, thereby increasing the efficiency of waste management.