The study on the possibility of using sewage sludge in the ecological reconstruction of contaminated sites from the petroleum industry

Abstract

One field of activity that pollutes important land surfaces with hydrocarbons is the petroleum industry. In the ecological reconstruction of contaminated sites from the petroleum industry, natural geological resources are used to fill the excavations resulting from the decommissioning of some equipment and installations. Increasing amounts of sewage sludge are generated by the growing number of municipal wastewater treatment plants. For this reason, solutions are being sought for the elimination or utilization of sewage sludge. For the decontamination of soils polluted with petroleum hydrocarbons, bioremediation technologies with the help of microorganisms, especially bacteria are used on a large scale. From  the results carried out in the present study, it appears that sewage sludge has microbiological, agrochemical, and geotechnical characteristics, which could make possible their utilization for the ecological reconstruction of sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbon. Thus, it would be possible to capitalize on the sewage sludge in the petroleum industry.