Regional heterogeneity of sustainable wastewater sludge management in China

In various regions of China, the sludge characteristics, available sludge treatment and disposal routes, and economic and environmental concerns exhibit significant variations. This makes it challenging for regions to select appropriate technologies for sustainable sludge management. This study proposed a universal framework that integrates carbon emissions, economic cost, and environmental risk potential to assess sustainability of diverse sludge treatment and disposal routes in different regions of China. An up-to-date database of sludge characteristics in different regions of China has also been created. Depending on sludge characteristics, coincineration in coal-fired plants or cement kilns and thermal hydrolysis-anaerobic digestion routes demonstrate outstanding sustainability for most regions in China. Moreover, the current carbon trading price in China is low and does not significantly influence the technical selection. The created sludge characteristics database and the sustainability assessment framework could help sludge managers make better in process selection, technological improvement, and future policy formulation.