Kinetics and mineralization fraction of organic matter from sewage sludge mixed with soil under controlled laboratory conditions

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the kinetics and mineralization fraction of organic matter from sewage sludge mixed with the soil under controlled laboratory conditions. For this, organic material samples accumulated in layers 0–5 cm, 5–10 cm and 10–15 cm in relation to the surface of a vertical flow constructed wetland system (VF-CW) used for treatment of septic tank sludge, in addition to samples of dewatered sludge from a septic tank and a UASB reactor and non-dewatered sludge from an anaerobic digester were mixed with material collected from the surface layer of a Red Yellow Argisol at rates equivalent to the applications, via organic residues, of 300 and 600 kg ha−1 year−1 of total nitrogen. It was found that the two-phase kinetic equation fit better to the mineralization data of labile and recalcitrant organic carbon. For the lowest nitrogen application rate in the mixtures, the mineralization fractions of the total organic carbon were higher than 73%, while at the highest dose there was a reduction in the mineralization of organic matter by 17% and 63%, respectively in samples collected in layer 10–15 cm from the VF-CW and in the septic tank sludge dewatered in the drying bed.