Chemosphere 53 (2003) 12011210

www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere

Occurrence and fate of heavy metals in

the wastewater treatment process
Michalis Karvelas, Athanasios Katsoyiannis, Constantini Samara

Environmental Pollution Control Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,

Thessaloniki GR-54124, Greece
Received 22 January 2003; received in revised form 26 May 2003; accepted 10 June 2003

Abstract
The occurrence and the fate of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Mn, Cu, Zn, Fe and Ni) during the wastewater treatment
process were investigated in the wastewater treatment plant (WTP) of the city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece, operating in the activated sludge mode. For this purpose, wastewater and sludge samples were collected from six dierent
points of the plant, namely, the inuent (raw wastewater, RW), the euent of the primary sedimentation tank (primary
sedimentation euent, PSE), the euent of the secondary sedimentation tank (secondary sedimentation euent, SSE),
sludge from the primary sedimentation tank (primary sludge, PS), activated sludge from the recirculation stream
(activated sludge, AS), and the digested/dewatered sludge (nal sludge, FS).
The distribution of metals between the aqueous and the solid phase of wastewater was investigated. Good exponential correlation was found between the metal partition coecient, log Kp , and the suspended solids concentration.
The mass balance of heavy metals in the primary, secondary and the whole treatment process showed good closures for
all metal species. The relative distribution of individual heavy metals in the treated euent and the sludge streams
indicated that Mn and Cu are primarily (>70%) accumulated in the sludge, while 4763% of Cd, Cr, Pb, Fe, Ni and Zn
remain in the treated euent.
2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Heavy metals; Wastewater; Wastewater treatment plants; Sewage sludge

1. Introduction
Since the early 1970s there has been growing concern
over the diverse eects of heavy metals on humans and
aquatic ecosystems. Many heavy metals and their compounds have been found that are toxic, while some
are also subjected to biomagnication (Viessman and
Hammer, 1993; Gardea-Torresday et al., 1996). Environmental impact by heavy metals was earlier mostly
connected to industrial sources. In recent years, metal

Corresponding author. Tel.: +30-2310-997805; fax: +302310-997747.

E-mail address: csamara@chem.auth.gr (C. Samara).

production emissions have decreased in many countries

due to legislation, improved cleaning technology and
altered industrial activities. Today and in the future,
dissipate losses from consumption of various metal
containing goods are of most concern (Bergback et al.,
2001). Therefore, regulations for heavy metal containing
waste disposal have been tightened (European Commission, 2002).
A signicant part of the anthropogenic emissions of
heavy metals ends up in wastewater. Major industrial
sources include surface treatment processes with elements such as Cu, Zn, Ni and Cr, as well as industrial
products that, at the end of their life, are discharged in
wastes (Sun and Shi, 1998). Major urban inputs to sewage water include household euents, drainage water,

0045-6535/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0045-6535(03)00591-5

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M. Karvelas et al. / Chemosphere 53 (2003) 12011210

business euents (e.g. car washes, dental uses, other

enterprises, etc.), atmospheric deposition, and tracrelated emissions (vehicle exhaust, brake linings, tires,
asphalt wear, gasoline/oil leakage, etc.) transported with
storm water into the sewerage system (US EPA, 1986;
Sorme and Lagerkvist, 2002; Gagnon and Saulnier,
2003). Wastewater treatment plants (WTPs) are expected to control the discharge of heavy metals to the
environment. Conventional processes in the eld of
wastewater treatment can be divided into two main
phases: (1) generation of suspended solids from colloidal
and dissolved solids by physical, chemical and biological
means in addition to the already existing suspended
solids; (2) separation of suspended solids by chemical
and mechanical methods including sedimentation, otation and ltration (Santarsiero et al., 1998). However,
biological wastewater treatment systems are chiey designed for removal of organic matter by activated sludge
microorganisms, and removal of heavy metals in these
systems may be regarded as a side-benet. As a result,
euents from municipal WTPs may contain metals at
concentrations above background levels since heavy
metals present in the inuent wastewater concentrate in
sludge, disposal of heavy metal-loaded sludge also represents an environmental hazard when used for agriculture or landlling (Lazzari et al., 2000; Scancar et al.,
2000).
In the present study, the occurrence and the fate of
eight heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Mn, Cu, Zn, Cr, Fe and Ni)
during the wastewater treatment process were investigated. The study was conducted in the WTP of the city
of Thessaloniki, northern Greece operating in the activated sludge mode. The mass balances of individual
metals were calculated for the primary, the secondary
and the whole treatment process. The partition of metals
between the dissolved and the particulate phase of
wastewater was also examined. Finally, the relative release of heavy metals from the WTP via the treated efuent and the sewage sludge was assessed.

2. Methodology
2.1. Sampling
The WTP of the city of Thessaloniki serves about 1
million residents by treating daily 120 000150 000 tonnes of municipal wastewaters. About 510% of the total
ow is contributed by small enterprises. The plant also
receives the greatest part of the local urban runo
mainly composed of atmospheric deposition, and tracrelated emissions deposited on the road surface. The
treatment process includes screening, grit removal, primary sedimentation without use of chemical coagulants,
conventional activated sludge treatment, and euent
disinfection with Cl2 . The sludge treatment consists of
covered prethickeners, open postthickeners, anaerobic
digesters and dewatering system with belt lter presses
(Manoli and Samara, 1999). The treated wastewater is
discharged in Thermaikos Gulf, while the sewage sludge
is deposited in a municipal landll (Katsoyiannis and
Samara, 2002). The owchart of the plant is shown in
Fig. 1.
Wastewater sampling was conducted in two one-week
campaigns during November and December 2001. In
each campaign, wastewater samples were collected over
ve consecutive days, excluding Saturday and Sunday.
Given that the residence time of wastewater in the WTP
was about 24 h, this sampling rate allowed sucient
matching of inuent and euent samples that is a prerequisite for mass balance calculations. 24-h composite
samples of wastewater, ow proportioned, were collected
from the inuent (raw wastewater, RW) and the euents
of the primary and secondary sedimentation tanks (PSE
and SSE, respectively). Grab samples of sludge were
collected from the PST (PS), the recirculation stream of
activated sludge (AS) concurrently with wastewater
samples. Grab samples of the nal digested/dewatered
sludge (FS) were collected 21 days later, which is the retention time in the anaerobic digesters.

Fig. 1. Flow chart of the Wastewater Treatment Plant of Thessaloniki (QRW : 150 000 m3 /d, QPS : 4500 m3 /d, QAS : 150 000 m3 /d, QAS2 :
3000 m3 /d).

M. Karvelas et al. / Chemosphere 53 (2003) 12011210

1203

All samples were collected in brown glass vessels with

Teon caps, precleaned with HNO3 and deionized water
according to standard methods (APHA, 1989). Samples
were transported to the laboratory within the same day
of collection and kept refrigerated (4 C) until analysis
(<24 h).

COD, SS) in wasterwater and sludge samples were determined by employing standard methods (APHA,
1989).

2.2. Sample preparation and analysis

3.1. Heavy metal concentrations in wastewater

A measured volume of each wastewater sample (RW,

PST and SSE) was centrifuged at 4500 rpm for 20 min.
The supernatant liquid phases were further ltered
through 0.45 lm nitrate-cellulose lters (Schleicher &
Schuell), and acidied with concentrated HNO3 (Merck,
pro-analysis). These samples were considered as carrying
the dissolved phase of metals in wastewater. The remaining sample volumes were analyzed for the total
concentrations of heavy metals (dissolved, colloid and
solid phase) after digestion with aqua regia (APHA,
1989). The non-dissolved metal phase was calculated by
subtracting the dissolved from the total phase. Digestion
with aqua regia was also applied to the uid sludges, PS
and AS. The nal sludge (FS) was oven dried at 70 C
for 24 h.
A Perkin Elmer 2380 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer coupled with an HGA-400 Graphite
Furnace Atomizer was employed for heavy metal
determination in all sample types. Matrix matched calibration curves, reagent blanks and duplicate samples
were used for quality assurance. The analytical precision
of instrumental measurements was better than 10% for
individual analytes.
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in centrifuged/ltered wastewater samples was determined by employing
a TOC analyzer (Shimadzu-V CSH). Total organic
carbon in sludge samples was determined according to
Jackson (1958). Conventional WTP parameters (BOD5 ,

The total (dissolved + particulate) concentrations of

heavy metals determined in wastewater samples are
presented in Table 1 along with data for conventional
wastewater parameters. All heavy metals were detectable
in the wastewater samples with a frequency of occurrence about 100%, and only Pb was detected at lower
frequencies (90%). The relative abundance of metals in
the wastewater samples at all stages followed the general
order: Cd < Cr 6 Pb < Mn < Ni 6 Cu < Zn < Fe. Similar relative abundances and metal concentration levels
have also been reported by other investigators for inuent and euent wastewater (Chipasa, 2003). A distinct decrease of the heavy metal concentrations during
the treatment process was obvious implying their removal from wastewater. The heavy metal content of
treated euent was by far lower than the limits set by
local authorities for discharge in Thermaikos Gulf (2
mg/l for Cu, 4 mg/l for Cr, 4 mg/l for Ni, 1 mg/l for Pb, 4
mg/l for Mn, 0.5 mg/l for Cd, 10 mg/l for Zn and 40 mg/l
for Fe).
The distribution of heavy metals between the dissolved and the particulate phase of wastewater is presented in Fig. 2. In general, the phase distribution of
individual metals exhibited only little change during the
treatment process with a slight progressive increase of
the dissolved phase of some metals after each treatment
step. Santarsiero et al. (1998) reported that, primary
sedimentation aected to a great degree the distribution

3. Results and discussion

Table 1
Mean SD of heavy metal concentrations in wastewaters (lg/l)
Metal

RW
Mean

Cu
Cr
Ni
Pb
Mn
Fe
Cd
Zn
BOD5 (mg/l)
COD (mg/l)
DOC (mg/l)
SS (mg/l)
N 9.

79
40
770
39
67
480
3.3
470
520
1100
72
690

PSE

SSE

SD

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

35
12
200
9.4
12
87
1.1
140

58
25
600
31
26
450
2.3
380

37
12
270
12
4.3
78
0.94
50

33
20
430
27
19
380
1.5
270

5.8
3.5
97
3.6
2.4
47
0.74
53

120
270
35
160

270
630
71
340

57
100
28
129

10
54
19
12

3.9
17
11
9.3

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M. Karvelas et al. / Chemosphere 53 (2003) 12011210

Fig. 2. Distribution of heavy metals in the dissolved ( ) and the particulate (j) phase of wastewater (RW: raw wastewater, PSE:
primary sedimentation euent, SSE: secondary sedimentation euent).

of Zn, Pb and Cr, while biological processes and secondary sedimentation aected mostly the distribution
of Cu, Cd and Ni. In our study, wastewater treatment
appeared to aect only slightly the phase distribution of
examined metals. On the contrary, the phase distribution appears to be metal-specic suggesting that metals
are present in dierent chemical forms with dierent
water solubility at the pH of wastewater (79). Studies
on the chemical fractionation of heavy metals in sewage
sludge have indicated that the water-soluble, exchangeable and carbonate-bound fractions are major carriers
of Ni and Zn, organic matter and sulphides are important carriers of Cr and Cu, iron/manganese oxides and
hydroxides are carriers of Pb, Zn and Ni, while a great
amount of sludge Fe and Pb is associated with the
crystallic phase of sludge particles (Angelidis and Gibbs,
1989; Scancar et al., 2000). In their review, Brown and
Lester (1979) indicated that the solubilities of heavy
metals in sewage followed the order: Pb < Cu < Cd,
whereas Jenkins et al. (1981) found the order to be
Cu < Pb < Cd < Zn. In the present study, Ni was found
primarily in the dissolved phase (8093%) as expected
due to the high mobility of this metal (Sorme and
Lagerkvist, 2002). Manganese also was found strongly
associated with the dissolved phase (6585%). On the
contrary, Cu, Cr, Pb, Cd and Zn were mostly associated
with the particulate phase (7595%), particularly Pb
(>95%). Iron exhibited moderate association with particles (5875%).

Partition coecients (Kp ) were determined for each

heavy metal as the ratios of the dissolved to the solid
phase concentrations (K M
S =M
D ). Partition coecient is indicative of the process (sorption, desorption,
etc.) that takes place, and species the presence of each
element in the two phases. Highest log Kp values were
observed for Fe (2.35.0) followed by Cd, Pb and Cr
reecting high anity of these metals to particulate
matter. The lowest log Kp values were found for Ni
()0.59 to 1.84) and Mn ()0.86 to 2.7). In Fig. 3, the
relationships between log Kp and the concentration of
suspended solids (SS) for each heavy metal are displayed. For all metals, a satisfactory exponential correlation between log Kp and SS was obtained as a result of
the large variation in the concentrations of suspended
solids (2965 mg/l) in the dierent wastewater samples.
When samples from dierent treatment steps were examined separately, good linear correlation appeared
only for the SSE (R2 0:934), that is associated with the
lowest SS concentrations (12.2 9.3 mg/l). On the contrary, correlation was poor either for linear, exponential
or logarithmic relationship in RW and PSE, where SS
concentrations were signicantly higher (690 160 and
344 129 mg/l, respectively).
3.2. Heavy metal concentrations in sludge
Metal concentrations found in sludge samples are
summarized in Table 2. The frequency of occurrence of

M. Karvelas et al. / Chemosphere 53 (2003) 12011210

1205

Fig. 3. Partition coecients of heavy metals in wastewater (log Kp ) in relation to the concentration of suspended solids (SS).

heavy metals in the sludge samples was 100% for all the
examined species. Zn appeared to be the most abundant
metal and again Cd exhibited the lowest abundance. All
metals were found at comparable concentrations in PS
and AS. On the contrary, concentrations in FS were
about 1020 times higher with most pronounced enrichment shown for Pb. This is due to the weight loss of
fresh sludge during anaerobic digestion, whereby biodegradable organic and inorganic matter is decomposed
to end products including CO2 , CH4 , N2 , H2 S and other
gases (Tchobanoglous and Burton, 1991; Langenbach
et al., 1994). Chipasa (2003) found Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn
contents in digested sludge 5099% higher than corresponding contents in undigested sludge.
Table 3 presents the limits established by various
countries for heavy metals in sewage sludges intended

for use in agriculture. As seen, the sludge generated in

the Thessaloniki WTP meets the requirements set by
Greek legislation for all heavy metals except for Zn that
slightly exceeds the limit value, and thus could be recommended for use in agriculture. However, when compared to the standards set by other European countries,
the sludge appears to be unsuitable for agricultural land
application and is only suitable for deteriorated and
disturbed lands or for industrial sludge landlls.
The metal content of sewage sludge often uctuates
due to irregular inputs from urban and industrial sources. The sludge contents of Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn, Cr and Mn
found in this work are 28 times higher than those
previously reported for the same WTP (Voutsa et al.,
1996). On the contrary, Fe was found at concentrations
10 times lower than in the past. These variations should

1206

M. Karvelas et al. / Chemosphere 53 (2003) 12011210

Table 2
Mean SD of heavy metal concentrations in sludge (lg/g d.w.)
PS

Metal
Cu
Cr
Ni
Pb
Mn
Fe
Cd
Zn
TOC (% w/w)
SS (% w/w)

AS

FS

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

100
17
37
28
83
240
1.0
350

21
6.1
12
7.9
28
64
0.39
3.1

91
32
31
16
73
360
1.0
440

17
13
16
3.1
17
63
0.37
59

1200
370
300
330
1100
3300
10
4500

220
100
76
84
180
260
4.3
450

25
2.3

1.3
0.44

2.6
0.10

40
22

17
0.72

2.7
0.49

N 9.

Table 3
Maximum permissible concentrations of heavy metals in the sewage sludge for agricultural land application (lg/g d.w.)
Country

Cd

Greece/EU

2040

Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Germany
France
Luxembourg
Holland
Spain
Italy
Slovenia
USA

3
5
0.4
10
20
1.5
1
10
10
5
85

Cr

Cu

Pb

Ni

Zn

Reference

10001750

7501200

300400

25004000

250
200

500
500
800
1000
100

100
100
30
200
200
50

1200
1500

900
1000
100

250
1000
120
900
800
150

2500
3000
400

Council Directive, 86/278/

EEC (1986)
Voutsa et al. (1996)
Voutsa et al. (1996)
Voutsa et al. (1996)
Abdel-Shafy et al. (1996)
Planquart et al. (1999)
Voutsa et al. (1996)

50
400
600
500
3000

75
50
600
600
4300

100
300
500
500
840

30
120
200
80
420

200
1100
2500
2000
7500

Cornu et al. (2001)

Voutsa et al. (1996)
Lazzari et al. (2000)
Scancar et al. (2000)
EPA, CFR 503 (1994)

be attributed to the fact that chemical coagulation using

FeCl3 is no longer applied in the primary treatment
stage. Further, other changes applied in the WTP operation during the last years (for instance, the daily input
of wastewater increased by 45 times with potential increase of the industrial contribution) might have contributed to the variation in heavy metal content in
sludge. In Table 4, literature concentration data for
heavy metals in sludges generated in several WTPs are
presented. As seen, sewage sludges can have variable
metal contents depending primarily on the industrial
ow and on the cleaning performance of each plant
(Angelidis and Gibbs, 1989; Abdel-Shafy et al., 1996;
Scancar et al., 2000; Chipasa, 2003).
3.3. Heavy metal and organic carbon correlations
Pearson correlation coecients calculated for heavy
metals and organic carbon content in wastewaters and

sludges are presented in Table 5. Poor correlations were

in general observed in wastewaters among dissolved
heavy metal concentrations. Similarly poor correlations
among total metal concentrations in untreated and
treated wastewater have also been reported by other
investigators (Santarsiero et al., 1996). Metals showing
signicant (negative) correlation with DOC were Zn and
Cr. Contrary to wastewaters, strong correlations statistically signicant at the 99% condence level were observed among all sludge parameters suggesting that
heavy metals in sludge are associated with the sludges
organic matter. Total organic carbon has been shown as
an important metal-sorption phase in both aerobic and
anaerobic sediment horizons (Luoma, 1990). Furthermore, the oxidisable phase, consisting primarily of organic material and secondarily of suldes, was found to
be a very important carrier of metals, particularly Cu,
Pb and Zn, in anaerobically treated sludges (Angelidis
and Gibbs, 1989).

M. Karvelas et al. / Chemosphere 53 (2003) 12011210

1207

Table 4
Concentrations of heavy metals in sewage sludges from various WTPs (lg/g)
Cd
4
2.1
55.7
2.78
1.81

Cr
128
1228
841
60.5
100.1

552

1.82

34

9.2
3.19

439
322

Cu
147
370
755
436

315.5
1403
258
934
287
167
326
239

Fe

Pb

Ni

Zn

46 000

155
72
930
128
35.9

34
19
260
622
43.5

1878
1500
12 064
2049

54.2
412
326
118
69
75
223
126.8

11.9
967
41
221

58 328
22 445

5098

16 794

36.5
317

Mn
308
3165

679.9
1739
1574
933
254
1636
2451

150

364

Reference
Voutsa et al. (1996)
Lazzari et al. (2000)
Bodzek et al. (1997)
Scancar et al. (2000)
Baralikiewicz and Siepak
(2001)
Perez et al. (2001)
Cornu et al. (2001)
Zorpas et al. (2000)
Bragato et al. (1998)
Madoni et al. (1999)
Planquart et al. (1999)
Alonso et al. (2002)
Abdel-Shafy et al. (1996)

Table 5
Correlation coecients for heavy metals and organic carbon content (N 27)
Sludge
Cu
Ni
Cr
Pb
Mn
Fe
Cd
Zn
TOC

Wastewater
Cu

Ni

0.92
0.88
0.96
0.99
0.97
0.94
0.97
0.90

0.97
0.93
0.93
0.93
0.83
0.92
0.86

Cr

Pb

Mn

Fe

Cd

Zn

DOC
)0.46

0.90
0.89
0.93
0.75
0.93
0.83

)0.44
0.98
0.95
0.88
0.96
0.89

0.98
0.92
0.98
0.91

0.84
0.99
0.90

)0.53
)0.46
0.84
0.78

)0.66

0.90

Coecients signicant at the 0.01 condence level are italicized.

3.4. Mass balance of heavy metals in the WTP of

Thessaloniki
The mass balances of heavy metals in the Thessaloniki WTP were calculated from their concentrations in
wastewater and sludge, the sludge content in suspended
solids and corresponding ow data obtained from the
plant records. Mass balance calculations were done
separately for each sampling day. Fig. 4 presents the
mean amounts of heavy metals that daily enter and exit
the treatment plant. In theory, there should be very good
accordance between the input and the output loads for
conservative pollutants like metals that cannot be degraded but settle out in the sludge or remain in the water
stream. The ratio IN  OUT=IN
 100 equals the
percentage of loss or gain for each determinant.
As seen in Fig. 4, the mass balance was satisfactory
for all heavy metals in the primary treatment with closures between )20% and +30%. These losses/gains might
be attributed to analytical errors as well as to relative
mismatching of inuent and euent samples. The mass

balance of heavy metals in the secondary treatment

showed excellent closures between )7% and +1%, with
only Ni exhibiting a loss of about 20%. Good closures
for all heavy metals were found in the mass balance
through the whole treatment process (30%), with best
values observed for Cr (10% loss).
3.5. Distribution of heavy metals between the sludge and
the euent streams
Assuming no biodegradation, the total heavy metal
loading of untreated wastewater will end up in the
sludge or remain in the treated euent. For most metals
(except the very mobile), release via sludge is expected to
be more important than via the treated euent. In the
present study, the relative importance of the two release
processes was calculated on a daily basis and mean
values are presented in Fig. 5.
As seen, the amount of total metal in wastewater
released from the WTP via the sludge stream varies from
37% for Fe up to 77% for Mn. Concerning Cr, Pb, Ni,

1208

M. Karvelas et al. / Chemosphere 53 (2003) 12011210

Fig. 4. Mass balance of heavy metals in the Thessaloniki WTP (g/d). Primary treatment: HMIN g=d HMRW g=m3  QRW m3 =d,
HMOUT g=d HMPSE g=m3  QRW  QPS m3 =d HMPS g=g  QPS m3 =d  SSPS g=m3 . Secondary treatment: HMIN g=d
HMPSE g=m3  QRW  QPS m3 =d HMAS g=g  QAS1 m3 =d  SSAS g=m3 , HMOUT g=d HMSSE g=m3  QRW 
QPS m3 =d HMAS g=g  QAS m3 =d  SSAS g=m3 . Total treatment: HMIN g=dHMRW g=m3 QRW m3 =d, HMOUT g=d
HMSSE g=m3  QRW  QPS m3 =d HMPS g=g QPS m3 =d SSPS g=m3 HMAS g=g QAS2 m3 =d SSAS g=m3 .

PRIMARY TREATMENT

IN
OUT

SECONDARY TREATMENT

IN
OUT

TOTAL TREATMENT

IN
OUT

Fig. 5. Release of heavy metals from the WTP via the sludge and the treated euent streams.

Cd and Zn, almost 50% of their daily input to the WTP

ends up in the sludge and the other 50% is released with
the nal euent stream. This suggests that large sized
WTPs may be signicant sources of heavy metals to
aquatic recipients, therefore it should be taken into account when guidelines for point-source discharges to the
aquatic environment are set by local authorities.

4. Conclusions
Heavy metals were determined at dierent stages of
an activated sludge WTP that receives mainly domestic

wastewater and urban runo. All determinants were

found at frequencies between 90% and 100%. The most
abundant metal in raw and treated wastewater was Fe
followed by Zn. Zinc was the most abundant metal in
primary, secondary and nal sludge. The least abundant
metal in wastewater and sludge was Cd. The digested/
dewatered sludge was found to meet the requirements of
the Greek legislation for agricultural land application
for all heavy metals examined except Zn. The secondary
clarication euent was also found to meet the limits set
by local authorities for disposal in Thermaikos Gulf.
The phase distribution of heavy metals in raw
wastewater and the euents from primary and second-

M. Karvelas et al. / Chemosphere 53 (2003) 12011210

ary treatment was largely variable among metals with

more than 80% of Ni in the dissolved phase and more
than 90% of Pb in the solid phase. Good exponential
correlation was observed between the metal partition
coecient (log Kp ) and the content of wastewater suspended solids.
The mass balance of heavy metals in the WTP showed
good closures for the whole treatment process and individual steps. Comparing the distribution of individual
metals between the treated wastewater and the sludge
streams, it was found that Mn and Cu are primarily removed through the sludge stream, Fe is removed mainly
with the euent, while the other heavy metals are almost
equally distributed between the two streams.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Dr. A. Soupilas (Sewarage
Authority of Thessaloniki) and Mrs. A. Noula (Themeliodomi, S.A.) for providing helpful assistance during
sampling.
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