Standards Development

Scope

This technical report inventories the available reference methods for physical and chemical characterization of sludge.

Identification of reference methods dedicated to the sludge analysis was conducted by questioning standards databases, and at first base of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), as it represents a compendium of methods developed by CEN/TC 308 "sludge characterization" in response to the directive 86-276/CE. CEN/TC 400 “Sludge, treated biowaste and soil” and CEN/TC 292 “Characterization of waste” (characterisation methods) merged in 2016 in CEN / TC 444 “analytical laboratory methods for environmental solid matrices”, which is now co-responsible with CEN/TC308 for the maintenance of existing corpus and the development of new methods, if needed.

At the international level, the absence up to 2013 of ISO Standardization Committee dedicated to sludge makes identification of ISO standardized methods applicable to this matrix more difficult, as sludge has sometimes covered by other committees as related to their matrix, water and water suspended solids (ISO / TC 147 “water quality”) or soil (ISO / TC 190 “soil quality”). EPA methods are mentioned in the bibliographic

Purpose

Municipal waste water treatment sludge (MWWTS) is one of the outputs of the treatment of domestic and industrial non-hazardous wastewater before returning water to aquatic medium under conditions preserving the quality of environmental waters.

Depending on the composition of the waste water before treatment, sludge resulting from the process contains elements showing an agronomic value that justify the use thereof as fertilizing materials, or elements that may constitute a contribution to fuel generation or cogeneration megacals units. However, to ensure proper recovery processes and safe recycling or reuse, chemical constitution and/or physical characterization of sludge could be requested, as unregulated pollutants for sludge can be regulated for receiving medium, e.g. phthalates and nonylphenols for water or heavy metals for soil, as well as with behaviour with respect to leaching. To further identify gaps to be fulfilled by developing ad hoc standard analysis or characterization methods, the purpose of this document is to inventory already existing reference methods that can be used to produce data concerning chemical content or physical parameters with an adequate level of confidence.