Advanced sludge thermal processes in Japan

As a result of the spread of sewerage systems, the management of growing quantities of sewage sludge is becoming an urgent need. As the method of sludge management, thermal processes have mostly been applied to the treatment and disposal of sewage sludge in Japan, because of the difficulty of finding final disposal sites. This paper describes the progress of thermal processing technologies, especially focusing on drying-incineration process systems and melting-slag recycling process systems.