NEBRA Member Marc Hébert recently completed an in-depth study of sewage sludge incineration ash recycling as a source of phosphorus and lime for agricultural applications. The report is in French but available in English. NEBRA’s Ned Beecher have been involved in this research since 2014 and assisted with revisions to the English Executive Summary of this new report.

According to the Executive Summary:

“This document was produced at the request of the Jean-R. Marcotte wastewater treatment plant of Montreal (the WWTP). The main objective is to provide agronomists, managers, and various stakeholders with information on sewage sludge ash and its optimal use in agriculture, according to best agronomic practices, the scientific literature, and government and municipal objectives for recycling and addressing climate change, as well as economic constraints.”

Many of the findings in this report may also be useful to other water resource recovery facilities in the United States that operate sewage sludge incinerators (SSI), with references on plant growth trials done with ashes produced in Ontario and New-England. The research builds on previous work done at Université Laval on the availability of phosphorus in SSI ash which was presented at NEBRA’s 2017 annual conference and subsequently published in 2019 by PhD student Claude Alla Joseph and Professor Lotfi Khiari.

Hébert, M. 2021. Recyclage agricole des cendres de boues d’épuration municipales de Montréal - État des lieux et optimisation des pratiques. 71 pages. http://marchebert.ca/publications/