Extraction of Cadmium from Sewage Sludge Using Polyepoxysuccinic Acid*1

Polyepoxysuccinic acid (PESA), as an environmental benign biodegradable chelant, was used to remove heavy metals from the sewage sludge of Shanghai Taopu Wastewater Treatment Plant. The extraction of cadmium (Cd) from sewage sludge using aqueous solution of PESA was studied. It was found that PESA was capable of extracting Cd from the sludge, and the extraction efficiency was dependent on both pH and the concentration of the chelating reagent. The extraction efficiency decreased gradually with increasing of pH, whereas the dependency on pH decreased as the concentration of PESA increased. In the case of the high PESA to total metal ratio, e.g., 10:1, the extraction efficiency reached above 70% within the pH range from 1 to 7. The highest extraction efficiency obtained in the experiment was 78%. By comparing the contents of the heavy metals in sewage sludge before and after the extraction, it was found that the extracted Cd came mainly from the four fractions: acid-soluble, reducible, oxidizable, and water-soluble fractions.