Authors

Nguyen Thuy Chung 1* , Luong Thi Mai Ly 2 , Nguyen Xuan Binh 3 , Pham Minh Chinh 4

Affiliations

1School of Environmental Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology; chung.nguyenthuy@hust.edu.vn

2Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi; luongmaily@hus.edu.vn

3Institute of Science and Technology – Ministry of Public Security; binh14.163.3@gmail.com

4Faculty of Environmental Engineering, National University of Civil Engineering; chinhnkt16@gmail.com

* Corresponding author: chung.nguyenthuy@hust.edu.vn; Tel.: +84–886114668

Abstracts

Sludge from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in industrial park is currently a serious problem in Vietnam as well as many countries around the world. Unlike other by–products, sewage sludge from WWTPs contains a lot of toxic components, heavy metals, persistent organic substances and many other hazardous ingredients in high concentrations. Up to now, there has not been a Vietnamese study focusing on systematically assessing the level of toxic pollutants in industrial sludge in Vietnam. Therefore, this study focuses on evaluating the characteristics of industrial wastewater sludge in a specific industrial park, and thereby determining the characteristics and current status of heavy metal pollution in the sludge compared with agricultural soil samples. This study determined the heavy metals enrichments and their possible sources in industrial sludges from different sampling time. The results show that industrial sludge exhibits very high pollution for some typical heavy metals, especially Cu and Cd. The analysis of the correlation relationship between heavy metals also helps to identify the source of emission of heavy metals in the sludge sample. The PI, Igeo indexes are also 2–10 times higher than the control soil samples. In addition, the study also used citric acid, GLDA and ascorbic acid solutions as a method of heavy metal extraction from sludge with relatively high efficiency (~80%). Among the chelators, GLDA can be selected as the most effective removal with high capacity to remove Zn and Pb.

Keywords

Industrial sludges; Heavy metal removal; Pollution; Enrichment.

Cite this paper

Chung, N.T.; Ly, L.T.M.; Binh, N.X.; Chinh, P.M. Characteristics of Heavy Metal Pollution in Industrial Sludge and an Environmental–Friendly Removal Method. VN. J Hydrometeorol. 2022, 10, 1-10. 

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