In the course of the complete teardown of the area of the former southern and eastern railway stations of Vienna and its complete redesign as a new central railway station of Vienna a substantial diesel contamination was detected. In the perspective of a sustainable solution ÖBB decided to eliminate this spill. For this purpose, initially around 4,500 m³ pollutant-containing soil were excavated and disposed. The remaining area was cleaned by an in situ remediation.

In the spring of 2003 we established a small plot experiment with sewage sludge compost that contains 40% sewage sludge, 25% straw, 30% rhyolite and 5% bentonite. In 2006, 2009 and 2012 the experiment was re-treated. We ploughed into the soil 0, 9, 18 and 27 t ha-1 sewage sludge compost in five repetitions. We used spring crops and autumn cereals as corn, pea and triticale in crop rotation. Now we present some potential toxic elements (Co, Cu, Ni and Pb) content of soil samples collected from the 0-30 cm soil layer after harvesting, in 2009-2012.

The PCDD/F emissions from incinerator start-up are a major contributor to the total amount of such emissions, as has been reported in studies of numerous municipal solid waste incinerators.

The study by the bifa environmental institute describes a future-orientated view of the ecological and economic effects of photovoltaic (PV) systems along their whole life cycle.

In modern sewage treatment plants (STP), about 90 % of the influent’s phosphorus can be re-moved via chemical and/or biological processes. This entire amount is found in the sludge and, after thermal treatment, also in the ashes. If sewage sludge is mono-incinerated, the resulting ashes represent the sludge matter with the highest possible P-concentration and the smallest mass to be treated respectively.

In the present work, an innovative approach to the disposal problem of asbestos wastes in Greece has been examined, through a risk assessment analysis of the inactive MABE asbestos mine and an evaluation of its suitability as a disposal site for asbestos wastes in the future.

NORM/TE-NORM wastes such as in particular radioactive scales and slur-ries/sludge are generated in the oil field and petrochemical industry in considerable amounts. Currently adequate treatment and disposal technologies are not commonly applied. This paper basically draws attention to the problem and reviews basic principles, applicability, advantages and limitations of NORM waste treatment and disposal.

Based on their nature of generation, hazardous wastes can be divided in two major groups: waste with historical background and waste currently generated from economic activity. Those two groups of waste require very different approaches considering their proper treatment both from environmental and economic point of view. Why? Historically generated hazardous wastes are obsolete products or resulted from entering into force and later amendments of specific legislation (such as POPs – DDT, PCBs, etc.) or more stringent requirements towards industrial ac-tivities. The second group of wastes – currently generated by economic activities have two main sources - industry and households. Both subgroups differ, depending on quantity, conditions, availability of funds to cover the treatment costs, and public perception.

As a limiting factor for plant growth, phosphorous (P) is removed permanently from soils and P-fertilization is indispensible for arable soils. Depending on origin and processing method of the raw materials, mineral P-fertilizers can contain Uranium (U) up to 173 mg·kg-1 (Dittrich & Klose 2008). Considering an extensive P-fertilization in conventional agriculture, their applica-tion could lead to an annual input of U into agricultural environments. Regarding the high hu-man- and phyto-toxic potential of U, it is necessary to characterize the fate of U in the pe-dosphere and to identify and quantify further processes like enrichment in soils, plant uptake or leaching into groundwater aquifers. In surface and soil waters the Uranyl-ion (UO22+) is the pre-dominant species of U. Since the high tendency to hydrolysis and complexation with different ligands, the chemistry of U in soils is very complex. Moreover, the physico-chemical properties of soils may vary in a broad range and could cause very different liquid/solid distributions of U, which mainly determines the mobility and plant availability of U.

With the implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 91/271/EEC, municipal sludge production has increased steadily in the EU during the last decade, although reduced water consumption and increased sludge treatment in some memberstates may have caused a stagnation or even slight decrease in sludge production (e.g. Germany, Austria, Sweden). Based on data provided to the European Commission for the 2002 – 2006 period, about 9.7 million Mg sludge solids are produced in the EU each year, 8.7 million Mg in EU-15 and an additional 1.0 million Mg in the new member states. Nearly 70 % of the total sludge mass is produced in Germany, UK, Italy, Spain and France. Until 2020, annual EU sludge production is expected to increase by 30 % up to 13 million Mg dried solids.

Both the treatment of solid waste and the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy are the urgent and crucial issues that are confronted worldwide. Using anaerobic digestion processes to convert biodegradable solid waste into fertiliser and energy can be the appropriate solution that is beneficial to both issues. This article gives a deep analysis about a dry fermentation plant with a horizontal plug-flow digester, which treats diverse sorts of industrial organic waste. Two-year successful operating experience demonstrates that the dry fermentation technology is suitable to treat and utilise the industrial organic waste, even if the sorts and amounts of feedstock vary constantly. Our experience also shows that the anaerobic digestion of industrial and commercial organic waste is the new trend worldwide and its markets are developing rapidly. Meanwhile, it is lack of all-embracing legislations and economic techniques regarding the treatment and utilisation of digestate, which hinders the development of biogas industry.

In the past few decades the disposal of sewage sludge has been subject to the development and testing of various treatment strategies. Beyond the direct exploitation of sewage sludge for agriculture use – which is more and more under critical discussion due to hygienic critical, endocrine and persistent substances endangering the subterranean water resources – the thermal treatment of sludge proved to be a feasible and sustainable solution.

In order to utilise sewage sludge as phosphorus resource, several wet-chemical and thermochemical techniques have been developed so far, yet only few seem promising for large-scale implementation. In the EU-funded research project RecoPhos starting in March 2012, the Montanuniversitaet Leoben, the University of Stuttgart and eight partners from the industry will develop a new P-recovery process that produces phosphoric acid, a calcium-silicate slag and an iron alloy, all resources for the industry. The chemical principle, the Woehler reaction, will be realised on the chemically reacting packed bed of the so-called InduCarb retort.The ashes can be pre-purified in a reductive melt reactor connected upstream, using alternative heat sources like dried sludge.

In an overview of a variety of life-cycle assessments dealing with sewage sludge the trend showing that agricultural use is less favourable compared to incineration is reinforced. The principal disadvantages comprise a considerably higher contaminant input into the environmental medium soil, and higher acidification and eutrophication due to the increased ammonia release from agriculturally utilised sewage sludge compared to inorganic fertilisers. The various alternatives, the majority of which are based on incineration methods, in turn display numerous advantages and disadvantages compared to each other.

Operating results show that the co-incineration of sludge with higher calorific fuels, such as coal, biomass or residue derived fuel (RDF) in circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers has good operating characteristic and is in general a practical method for thermal sludge disposal. This study focuses on three circulating fluidized bed boiler plants in Germany that co-incinerate various fiber processing sludge, inherently composed of poorly biodegradable cellulose and lignin, and their related operational experience. The operating datashow varying impacts on the plant performance, mechanical load and emission values depending on the sludge composition and co-incineration share. In particular fiber sludge with high ash and limestone contents affect heating surface cleaning cycles and Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

The untreated primary sludge produced in the sewage treatment plant with a dry matter content of about 4 – 5 % by mass is stabilized by means of different technical methods, dried to a DM content of 80 – 85 % and serves as raw material for further processing. Predominantly, municipal sewage sludge is pelleted, the composition of which is relatively homogeneous on account of its origin. Basically, industrial sewage sludge can also be pelleted, yet its structure and composition may vary a lot.