Thesis (MSc) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research Environmental Sciences Department

Includes bibliography (sheets 105-110)

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that the transformation of energy from one form to another is not one hundred percent efficient as some energy is being given off as a by-product or waste in some cases. The continuous activities of households and firms in production and consumption causes pollution to water bodies such as rivers, and streams. The cleaning of these water bodies and recycling of water waste leads to the formation of mud-like residue known as sludge. Hence, the motive behind this study of sludge management as well as the components of sludge. Mininni et al 2015, and Cielik & Konieczka, 2017 pointed out that some useful by-products can be obtained from sludge despite their dangerous nature. Sludge components such as Nitrogen and Phosphorous are ingredients for plant fertilizers that help to boost plant yield.An experiment was performed on 300g of sludge obtained at Haspolat in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, and physical, chemical, and thermal means were used for pre-treatment purposes. In line with (Le Kunacheva & Stuckey, 2016), the Modified Lowry method was used to analyze the protein content of the sludge and found that the application of 5% NaOH at 70oC for 240 minutes yielded a 139% increase than any other method including the use of ultrasonic or acid. We applied different recovery methods such as sulfuric acid and ultrasonic to improve the efficiency of sludge recovery and discovered that 5% of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 70oC for 240 minutes gave the maximum value of carbohydrate present in sludge which is about 1652% when compared with other recovery known method.We also investigated the effect of sample pretreatments (ultra-sonication and alkaline extraction) on total organic carbon (TOC) measurements. For Inorganic Carbon (IC), there was a maximum peak value of IC of 4.62mg/g applying sonication at room temperature for 240 minutes, with an initial about 3.15mg/g, there has been a 31% increase. For Total carbon (TC), applying 5% NaOH at 70oC for 240 minutes gave the maximum value of 20.02mg/g, from the initial value of 8.16mg/g, offering a 145% increase.In conclusion, waste cannot be eliminated as pollution continually increases with the increase in world population, but the use of effective recovery methods can extract useful components from sludge, and help mitigate environmental damage.