Razzaboni M, Di Gioia D, Braschi G, Patrignani F, Cocchi A, Foschini M

In recent decades, great attention has been devoted to the recovery of nutrients from secondary resources and their reuse in sustainable agriculture, driven by the growing food demand of a rising global population and the water–energy–food nexus challenges of climate change and resource depletion. Transitioning to a circular economy hinge on technologies that reclaim valuable compounds while minimizing natural resource consumption.<

Following this principle, Centro Agricoltura Ambiente “Giorgio Nicoli” (C.A.A.) has pioneered treatments at its Crevalcore (BO) facilities where sewage sludge is accumulated and processed, the sludge is kept in fifteen tons tanks and constantly mixed to avoid anaerobic fermentation since is transported to other facilities for its disposal. Although sludge is rich in water and organic matter, with the potential to be a rich soil amendment, it often harbours contaminants and malodorous volatiles, that pose environmental and health risks. In the EU alone, 6–9 million tons of dry sludge are generated annually, typically managed via landfilling or incineration, practices that highly impact the true potential of this waste product.

This project aims to reduce sludge derived odorous molecules (aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, sulphur‐ and nitrogen‐based volatiles) and degrade hazardous organic pollutants by applying a commercial product (EMbio) containing a consortium of the so called Effective Microorganisms (EM), and by developing a new microbial consortium able to process this complex organic matrix with degradation capabilities on pollutants and odorigenic compounds.