Ecological risk assessment of sewage sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants: a case study

The aim of this study was to characterize sewage sludge from mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in terms of total concentrations of heavy metals (HMs) and their distribution. Moreover, HM mobility, stability and ecological risk were assessed by calculating the mobility factor (MF), the reduced partition index (I_r) and the ecological risk index (ERI). Hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) was used to group the HMs in the sludges on the basis of their MF, I_r and ERI. The concentration of HMs decreased in the following order: Zn > Cu > Ni > Pb > Cd. HM mobility, as indicated by the MF values, was as follows: 18.7%-30.6% (Zn), 8.1%-36.4% (Ni), 6.8%-11.1% (Cu), 3.2%-32.2% (Pb) and 0% (Cd). Based on the average I_r values, the stability of the metals in the sludge increased in this order: Zn (0.23)=Pb (0.23)