As wastewater travels through sewers, heavy metals are unavoidably picked up and accumulated. This ultimately results in a heavy metal-contaminated sewage sludge product post-treatment which cannot be easily disposed of owing to emission restrictions. Our work tackles this international environmental problem by employing recyclable low-cost protic ionic liquids to complex out these toxic metal ions to produce a heavy metal-lean emulsion fuel through a patented fractionation process. Sewage sludge samples collected from wastewater plants in the UK were treated with methylimidazolium chloride ([Hmim][Cl]) and triethylamine hydrogen sulphate ([TEA][HSO<sub>4</sub>]) under various operating temperatures, times, solids loadings and water content. Analysis of the solid product and metal-rich ionic liquor using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) suggested that [Hmim][Cl] extracted Cd, Ni, Zn, Pb without altering the phosphorus content while other toxic metals such as As and Cr were more readily removed with [TEA][HSO<sub>4</sub>].

Demetallization of sewage sludge using low-cost ionic liquids to produce low-carbon fuels

256th National Meeting (2018)

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