Eco-friendly approach for leaching out heavy metals from sewage sludge

Sewage sludge contains rich organic matter and nutrients essential for the growth of plants but the presence of toxic heavy metals restricts its land application. To overcome this, the study aims an eco-friendly approach for leaching out heavy metals. Sewage sludge from sewage treatment plant, Chennai, India was characterised. The analysis of total heavy metal concentration was done by digesting in nitric acid and different forms were extracted by community bureau of reference sequential method. Heavy metals: As, Cd, Cr, Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn were determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry Perkin Elmer Optima 5300 DV. The experimental set-up for heavy metal leaching was held for five consecutive days at different concentrations of humic acid (0.1%, 0.5% and 1%) at varied pH (5-9). Results revealed that at the end of fifth day at pH 8, 1% humic acid is capable of leaching out 75.5% cadmium, 66.0% nickel, 52.0% lead, 51.2% zinc, 31.2% copper and 8.5% cadmium from sewage sludge. Statistically positive correlation (0.7088) existed between the percentage of heavy metals leached out and the sum of soluble and reducible fractions. Thus, from ecological point of view, humic acid can be used to leach out heavy metals from sewage sludge serving the need in restoration of soil fertility upon land application.